Bitter Insomnia
by kaattiiee
Summary: Post OoTP. When the Dark side rises,Draco questions where his loyalties lie. Muggle towns are invaded and several prisoners are taken. When Draco is drawn into the thick of it, he makes a life changing decision. Draco fic. *CH 19* FINISHED
1. Read this first, please!

**Please read this before you decide to flame me for misinformation! LoL :P**

I wrote this story right after Order of the Pheonix was released, right after I read it. Therefore, I had no knowledge of what would happen in the final two books. I wrote it blind from right after OotP, and made up my own storyline with the information I had, and things I made up. So anything included in the 6th or 7th book won't apply here, if they do it's purely coincidence; sorry! I know, sevvvveral years ago. I actually posted the story here once before the first time around, but had never finished it. If you think it sounds familiar, that's probably why. I've gone through and edited extensively, added an entire person/situation, and lo and behold: FINISHED IT! Hooray!

**Why did you decide to put this up now?** I don't know. Not really for anyone but myself, just the prove that I could finish a story that I loved of mine. Kind of cathartic. If I like a story of mine, it's hard to finish because I hate to end it. : ) But I've done it, and I'm proud of myself.

If you hate the story for the story, that's fine; I'm not confrontational and won't tell you how to think : ) . But please don't flame me for changing some information (for example, Draco's birthday I've changed from early June to late September), etc.

It feels nice to be posting again though, I've gotta say! Thanks guys, and happy reading!


	2. Special Delivery

Dark times had overshadowed the light that had been worked for; so _hard_ for so long. The war between magical good and evil had come to a bitter end, claiming the lives of men, women and children, wizards and muggles alike.

The Dark Lord Voldemort had been near defeated by none other than, at the time, fifteen year old Neville Longbottom. The wizarding world was shocked and saddened when they received the news that Neville had lost his life, severely crippling Lord Voldemort for the safety of others—including Harry Potter.

The lives of the students attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry changed drastically with the sudden retirement and suspicious death of Albus Dumbledore, and the equally as sudden replacement of him with Raiken Talcizar—a strong, well-known leader in the rise of the dark side and a rather openly-admitting Death Eater. The school's favorite Gryffindor trio remained close despite the Ministry's newly passed Separation Enactment, which heavily frowned upon close association between pure-bloods, half-bloods, "mud-bloods", and most importantly—muggles. Their attempts, along with those of everyone else in the rather nasty situation were not eased by Harry's newly developed bitter outlooks and refusal to accept this new way of life that had been so ruefully forced upon them; And after he had worked so hard to avoid it, only to lose someone that should not have been lost in the process. It should have been him, he thought; Harry. First Sirius, then Neville…all because of him. It was too much, and Harry had let it all happen.

All of these sudden changes did not have quite so much of a predictable reaction upon everyone among the wizarding community; Especially when it came to a certain ice-hearted, sneering young man who felt quite differently.

-

Draco Malfoy pulled the hood of his black robes over his head as he made his way through the town of Hogsmeade. His usual sneer was the only thing visible from under the dark velvet. He carelessly pushed his way through the crowds upon the cobblestone street, which were still wet from a recent storm. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and let out an exasperated puff of breath, which curled into lazy white smog against the cold, dark day. The sole fact that he had only a little way further to go was his motivation, and he had no desire to look up and around at the things or people around him—he knew exactly what was there. His father had helped make it so, and as long as his last name remained Malfoy, Draco would as well—no choice given. Gently, he let his fingertips brush the icy, somewhat heavy object in his pocket and he gave a slight grimace. No matter how long he held it in his hands, he knew it would never be anything but cold.

He turned onto a familiar, nearly abandoned street on the seedy side Hogsmeade, and glancing casually up and then down the street, he ducked into a cramped ally between two run-down 

buildings. Draco glanced up quickly and his gray eyes flickered over to a fairly plump man in attire nearly identical to his own who stood coolly against the aged, crumbling brick wall and let out a small sigh of relief. The man noticed him and looked up, revealing an obnoxious black-toothed grin and Draco once again touched the object in his pocket, this time pulling it out and holding it out towards the man hoping to get this over with as soon as possible.

The man gingerly took hold of the metal in Draco's limply outstretched hand and allowed an oily grin to spread across his pale face.

"Is that what you asked for?" Draco asked, feeling obligated rather than saying it simply out of common courtesy.

"Aye, it is. Your father will be proud. I can just about say that you'll be with us before the end of your school year—excellent hand you are, spitting image of your father. Nice work, and er, tell your ol' dad I says he's done a fine job with you." The man replied with a hint of what was once an Irish accent still audible in his voice. Draco forced a smile, and shook the hand that the man held out.

"It's the first thing on my list. Good day." With an acknowledging nod, Draco turned and began to make his way back out of the alleyway, able to hear the distant crackling of his affiliate apparating out of their meeting spot. He stepped back out on to the street and momentarily looked up at the sky, looking for a break in the clouds just in time to feel hard, icy raindrops splash upon his face, rudely snapping him out of it. Bringing his head down once more, he began to push his way back through the city, not caring about the people scurrying about like ants trying to get out of the rain. Rain, Draco thought, was the least of his problems.

Something caused him to look up as he passed a bookstore window, and he felt his typical sneer crawl onto his face when he saw why. At a table in the back sat Harry Potter, who, just then was ignoring the open book set in front of him and instead seemed to be screwed up in painful concentration. Draco knew what he was thinking about, as did everyone else in the universe. He scoffed.

'What's Potter got to be so damn put out about?! Feeling fucking sorry for himself…' He thought angrily, and then sighed and muttered to himself, "He doesn't know the half of it…"

-

Memories of a night not too long ago instantly flooded Draco's mind, and he grimaced uncomfortably. The night that ended that horrible war, Draco's father asked him to meet him in a muggle town to learn, what Lucius had so eloquently put, the "tricks of the trade". Draco had gone, as his father requested, this really being his first time outside since the rise of the dark side.

The moment he was out of doors, he had regretted it. As he neared the town, his sneer perceptibly fell blank and his eyes grew slightly wider as he took in the scene before him. The town, which he could see was obviously quite a distance from its neighbor, was alive with utter chaos and it took no more than five minutes to spot Lucius and several other Death Eaters under his command upon a now destroyed street. As if intuitively sensing Draco's presence, he turned and extended both of his arms in greeting.

"Ah, son," He began, a content, wry smile upon his face, "Do you see what can be done, when you're out to get it done _right_?" Lucius gestured outwards, proudly telling Draco to look around at what he and his accomplices had achieved. The more Draco saw, the less he wanted to look. It was a strange feeling he was experiencing…one that he had never felt before; one that, at the time, he couldn't quite define. He was not sharing in his father's joy in seeing three or four muggles upon this particular street alone lying dead upon the pavement, struck down by the famous _avada kedavra _curse that had brutally taken the lives of so many before. He could not see what was so thrilling about seeing small children newly orphaned, lying next to their parents bodies and sobbing hysterically, begging that their own lives be spared. In fact, to him…it just seemed miserable. But he was a Malfoy—he shouldn't be feeling any way but proud. Though, despite forcing himself to believe his thoughts were ridiculous and plastering a smirk upon his lips, he could not rid himself of the nagging in the back of his head telling him that something was not right…

Draco noticed something out of the corner of his eye and turned to ask his father about it, "What're they doing over there?" He asked, astutely folding his arms across his chest and nodding off in the direction of a group of three or four Death Eaters forcing a young bewildered female figure, obviously under the influence of several powerful charms, towards what looked like a large metal cage. When opened, Draco could see two others inside of it; one male, and one other female both of whom looked to be in the same position as the first girl that he laid eyes upon, though slightly older. There were two other cages similar to it lined up right behind it, and though they were closed Draco could see a pale trembling hand of a man gripping one of the bars that covered the face-sized window.

"Well, honestly I wanted it to be a surprise. But I'm sure Crabbe and Goyle would have informed you beforehand anyway," Lucius looked over at his son who looked back at him expectantly, "Hogwarts is getting a couple of new additions this year. Let's just say, we've given several of the House Elves some 'time off', if you will. Or should I now say, a _few_ new changes…." Lucius added dryly with a smile as the two of them watched as the third girl was pushed into the steel pen with the others. But before the door was slammed shut and locked again, from a distance Draco caught the girl's eyes flicker up and meet his own gray ones, seeing something in them that he had seen many times but not like this…It was fear. Draco felt a pang of uncomfortable realization, and his face paled considerably. The door closed with a rusty creak and a resonant clang, and the three individuals inside were apparated to God knew where by the incredibly pudgy Death Eater standing at its side; gone. Draco nodded in acknowledgment to the explanation, but those words rang in his ears and he wondered what in the devil could possibly be done that was worse than what he was witnessing that night, "Bylatt!" Lucius bellowed cheerfully at the stout man who had just been tending to those in the cage, who instantly waddled over.

"Yes, sir?"

"Order the brand. I'll have one of my best men deliver it." Lucius grinned and patted Draco on the shoulder; Draco was the man that he spoke of.

"Right away, Lucius." And with that, Bylatt plodded away. Draco looked over at his father and raised an eyebrow, causing his Lucius's grin to become even wider.

"Delivering that brand will be the first duty for you to complete in your training, Draco; we're all well aware that _you_ shouldn't need to go through this procedure at all, but simply to make it 'fair', if you will." Lucius chuckled in such a manner that you could hear the hollowness of his soul, and Draco forced one as well before casually inquiring once again.

"Father… what, exactly, is this brand for?" Lucius looked slightly surprised, and raised both of his eyebrows in amusement.

"For the _prisoners_, Draco; What else?!"

Draco shook himself out of his reverie and shuddered and he subconsciously flexed the hand in the pocket that had previously held the metal object—the brand that he had just delivered. Looking back up at Harry, who had moved very little, he let out another breath of exasperation.

'Doesn't know the half of it…' He shifted his hands in his pockets and dropped his gaze back to the cobblestones, and once more made his way through the now nearly empty streets of Hogsmeade.


	3. Followed

There was an unfamiliar silence in the Great Hall; a militaristic type of deafening silence that had only previously existed in it when it was empty, or the school's inhabitants were in bed—but never when they were dining in it. Friends sat together at their house tables as they always had, though no one dared speak a word; perhaps feeling that they needed some sort of insurance that it was all right, or rather allowed.

"Excuse me!"

The entire student body shifted as the first words of the evening were said, and stiffly turned around to face the staff table where a tall, tanned man with dark hair and eyes stood in the seat where Albus Dumbledore once had. The faces of the other members of the staff were bereft of any feeling as they politely turned to face the man as well, "As you may already be aware, Headmaster Dumbledore sadly passed away a few months ago following the announcement of his retirement. A moment of silence for him is well in order." The man began with a somber expression that could easily have been a lie, and he put his head down, the other professors and students following suit. Asking for a moment of silence in a room that was already hysterical with it seemed almost funny, though no one dare laugh. This year would be different; they all knew it. When the moment had passed, everyone's heads slowly raised and the man began again, "Taking his place, will be myself; I am Professor Talcizar, and though many of you do not know me well yet nor I you, I hope to change that quickly and I'm looking quite forward to an exciting new year." A smile that was difficult to read twisted upon his handsome face, "Well, without further delay, we'll begin the sorting ceremony. First years, step this way, please."

Draco had stopped listening to Raiken Talcizar the moment the words "Dumbledore" and "sadly" passed through his lips. He sat, rather unconcerned with the first years queued in front of the room, between Crabbe and Goyle, who wore looks of sheer excitement. Naturally, Draco thought, they would be excited _this_ year, what with all the 'changes'. Draco _should_ have been, too, and knew it.

The reality was that he had not slept correctly ever since that night he met his father in the muggle town. The things he had seen, the things that Lucius had told him…they were some of the worst things he had ever witnessed. Being a member of his family, and more or less having to become a Death Eater as his father and so many before him had done, should please him immensely. His two best friends were in Eden, but this sudden change of emotion that kept him up night after night aimlessly roaming the walkways of the Malfoy Manor was not an emotion that he, as a Malfoy, should feel at a time like this. He could not come to terms with the frustration he felt, even for _thinking_ such things…and even more so for not being able to push himself to change it.

He sighed in aggravation at the tediously slow passing of the time – almost taunting him in its sluggishness – and sat back, leaning his elbows upon the table behind him. As everyone's attention was focused in the opposite direction, Draco's eyes flicked over to the staff table and zeroed in on Talcizar—a close friend of his father's. What he saw made his face blank entirely and he felt what little color was in it drain. The same object that he had delivered to Mr. Bylatt just two months ago was in the hands of Talcizar, being discretely passed to the Potions teacher—Snape. Draco caught Talcizar lean over and whisper to Snape, who smirked; obviously 

happy with his instructions. A few moments later Snape rose from his seat and excused himself, covertly sliding the brand into the pocket of his own black robes—The _human_ brand, that read L.V.—and left the Great Hall. Draco felt a chill run down his spine and goose-bumps of animosity covered his arms, thankful for the long sleeves of his robes that covered them. He thought for a moment, and after making a silent decision Draco rose from his seat.

"Where 'you goin'?" Draco turned to see Goyle looking up at him, a confused look upon his round face. He smirked, easily donning a cool expression – though fooling either of the two would not necessarily take a genius.

"Just to the bathroom," He said, and seeing that Crabbe had turned around as well he added smugly, "I'll be back in a few minutes, unless you want to come and hold it for me while I piss." Their faces pinkened and they nodded in something that was a close to understanding as Draco knew they could come, and with a roll of his eyes he turned and left. Once outside the door, he stopped.

Where would they be keeping them…? Not where the house-elves used to stay, never; it was far too nice for what his father and other supporters of the dark side would consider to accommodate muggles. It was then, that it came to him—the dungeon. But could that be it? That particular section of the school had been forbidden to both students and staff for at least twenty years…which was exactly what would make it the perfect place.

Keeping as quiet as possible and staying out of sight of anyone who may be in the corridor, Draco followed the path that he was sure Snape had taken a minute or so earlier. The hallways seemed endless, and the obnoxious silence did nothing to ease his slight nerves. If he was caught, of course, he could find some way to get himself out of it as he had so many times before, but if it could be avoided, that would be preferable.

Finally, Draco's nerves were put to rest when he reached the end of the time-consuming hallway and the start of the final long, spiraling, dark stairway that led down to the long-unused dungeons. He sighed quietly and began the descent; that guilty feeling in his gut hadn't eased in the least, and he knew that what he had come to see would only make it worse in a different way. Interrupting his thoughts was the cold sound of iron lazily clanking together and a cheery humming that seemed incredibly out of place in the bleak setting; Draco instantly recognized this as the voice of Snape. He turned the corner slowly and came to face the incredibly huge room, filled with rows upon rows of magically protected prison cells. Every few cells had a torch upon the wall outside of it, casting an eerie glow in the room that made any shadow seem to ripple like black water.

Being sure to stay hidden behind the large thick pillars placed every ten feet or so, Draco made his way closer to where he saw Snape standing with his back to him, busily working on something in front of him. Draco squinted and attempted to see exactly what it was, but he need not to continue after Snape spun on his heel sprightly, now giving Draco a clear side view. In Snape's hand was his wand, the tip of which had been enchanted to light ablaze, and beneath this he held the brand which was now glowing red around its edges. He watched as Snape continued on, making his way back towards the furthest cells and being careful not to rattle the heavy 

chains upon the pillars, Draco slowly followed after him. Finally, the jaunty thud of Snape's feet upon the stone floor came to a slow and then a complete stop, and it was then that Draco heard him begin to speak.

"Doing well, are you not?" He chuckled, "What, can't speak? Any of you? What a wonderful little charm it is, _silencio_… 'Lovely newlywed couple. Well, happy honeymoon." He continued, waving his wand and causing the door to slowly slide open. He slid the wand back into its keeping place at his side and entered, smiling at the glowing object in his hand. Snape was now out of Draco's sight, but he remained silent and waited for something, anything, that he wasn't quite sure he was ready for, but needed to hear.

The ripping of cloth was heard, soon followed by a female whimper and a deep male grunt, both sounding pained, and Draco felt himself become nauseous as the distinct smell of burning flesh traveled through the air.

"That wasn't so bad then, was it?" Snape chortled once more, his voice dripping with sarcasm before leaving the cell, magically sealing the iron door behind him. Even in the dark of the dungeon, Draco could see a pleased smile upon his Potions teacher's face as he moved two cells down, "Aw, feeling a bit glum today, mayor? You're looking a bit sick…hm. No matter, I've got quite the remedy for you here!" He laughed and Draco heard and sharp zap and the thud of someone heavy hitting the stone floor; Snape must have hit him with a spell. He flicked his wand at the door again and it opened, Snape quickly going inside. Humming nonchalantly, Draco listened to the sound of material ripping and this time found himself flinching as the man in the cell howled loudly when the brand hit his skin. Without another word, Snape emerged and Draco saw a contented smirk curled upon his lips. Finally, he walked down two more cells and across the wide hallway, now facing a cell that was on the same side that Draco was hiding. His heart beat a little faster and he carefully adjusted himself behind the pillar, making sure that he remained unseen.

Snape stopped in front of the last cell in the dungeon, opposite from where Draco had seen the others, and he carefully snuck a little closer getting about ten feet away from his potions teacher, watching him with almost morbid curiosity. Snape let his cheerful hum come to an abrupt stop as he faced the cell door and broadened his grin at its inhabitant, "Feeling well, my dear?"

Silence. Snape flicked his wand-wrist and opened the door, again taking no time to hesitate before entering. Once more the unpleasant sound of clothing being violently ripped and a somewhat obscene chuckle was heard. A couple of moments later, Draco once again felt his stomach heave as he smelled scorched skin, but he heard nothing. Not a groan, not a scream, not even a gasp; Nothing that gave any indication that the person was even conscious to feel the glowing metal sear their body. Seconds later, the subtle clomping of Snape's feet returned and he came back into view, shutting the door behind him, "I told them you were my personal favorite," He muttered; Draco could practically hear the smile, "Now," He said, moving backwards a little so that he could be seen from all three cells and speaking the all of their inhabitants, "Before dawn tomorrow, two of you will be taken to the upstairs elf dungeon to stay, working in the kitchens and east wing. While it's too nice for the likes of any of you, in my opinion, orders are orders… The other two will be kept down here, but taking care of the 

school's dungeon-classrooms, and the north and western wings. And simply to prove that I'm a nice fellow, I'll let the four of you decide for yourselves who will be going where. Until the morning!" Snape said cheerfully, waving his wand again and muttering a counter-charm. With that, he turned and made his way back out of the dungeon.

Draco held his breath as Snape passed within three feet of where he was hiding, black robes swishing darkly behind him. Once he was out of earshot Draco let out a much needed breath, but then quieted himself when he heard quiet talking…

"Mayor…" It was a girl's deep whispering voice, sounding quite tired.

"Y-yes, lamb?" The man was still clearly recovering from the pain of the burn.

"…I think we should stay." There was a silence following her words, but then finally, sounding sure the man spoke.

"I agree with you."

"Marc…?" This was girl's voice again, but louder.

"Yes?" The other male, Marc, replied, sounding equally as beaten. It was then that Draco figured out that these two speakers were of the furthest apart cells, judging the distance by the quiet echoes their voices made against the stone ceilings and floors.

"About…about tomorrow. I think you and Charity should be the two that go upstairs."

"What?! Now, wait just a minute, Jade! I know this seems bad, but we can't leave you two down here _alone_! What if that…godawful excuse for a man comes back and tries to…do what he did before?! I don't even want to think about it…" Another older sounding, frenetic female voice came from the same place that Draco had heard the man, Marc's voice.

"Now, Charity, we won't be alone; we've got one another." The mayor's voice sounded calm, reassuring. Before the frantic sounding woman could cut in again, the girl's low voice interrupted again.

"There may be worse things…I don't know what, but we know what they can do. I don't want either of the two of you to have to go through it, especially not _separated_. You've not been married three months for Christ's sake, and I can't let _this_ split you up—Stay with each other."

"This place could kill you!" Charity's voice came out as a loud whisper, as if she were trying to keep the whole thing a secret with the dungeon itself. The other girl, who Draco had discovered was 'Jade' sighed, and Draco heard the first man's voice again.

"And it'll kill you _both_ if you stay down here." The mayor reasoned; his voice was so calm and stern that Draco almost felt more at ease himself –until he realized what was happening.

There was a moment of silence in which heavy thought lingered in the air, and finally Marc spoke, his voice quiet and calm.

"…Are you two really quite sure about this? You're very young, Jade, and Mr. Mayor, sir…"

"Nine years isn't such a dramatic difference between us, Marc. I'm positive."

Draco could almost hear a small smile creep upon the girl's face, and then there was silence. Whether the silence was true, or he had blocked everything out was unknown to Draco, and the next thing he knew he was slumped on the floor against the pillar with his head supported by his arms. He wondered how long he had been sitting there, consumed by the events he had just overseen, and the distant striking of the giant grandfather clock in the main entrance of the school above let him know that it was ten-o-clock at night. He had sat through dinner in its entirety, sitting there, lost in thought . Draco then remembered exactly where he was and he froze, listening for any movement or sound from behind him. All he heard was a quiet snoring, and some deep breathing, letting him know that the captured muggles were sleeping.

Taking a moment to think, he made his decision and carefully stood. He drew in a short, bracing breath and emerged from behind the pillar, slowly making his way down the same cell block that Snape had walked a few hours ago and stopped at the very last one.

He turned to the left once he came to the end, not sure of what he would see but deciding that prolonging it would make it no better. In the dimness of the back of the cell, the only thing that Draco could make out from within it was a heap that seemed somewhat disheveled and appeared to be on some sort of incredibly long chain, bound by the arms with wrist-shackles. His face fell and his uneasiness felt no better. After hesitating a moment, he awkwardly cleared his throat. The figure stirred and slowly pushed itself up. Draco repeated his action, this time with slightly more confidence and felt successful when he saw the person's face look up at him.

"Hey. Over here." He whispered, as to not draw any attention from the other three in the cells across the hall. Very tiredly, the body attempted to pull itself to its feet and with a quiet rattling of the chains, slowly made its way towards where Draco stood at the door, visibly trembling before coming within ten feet of him.

Once the figure stepped into the dim torch-light, Draco froze uncomfortably. It was the same girl who he had seen captured on that horrible night in England with his father…Her eyes wide with obvious fear, and recognition.


	4. An Exemplary Death Eater

A/n: I know draco's birthday is in early June. For the sake of this story, it's in late September. Enjoy!

The girl took somewhat of a stumbling step backward and Draco felt a horrible wave of guilt flood his body. He had instilled fear in somebody, and did not like it. He winced at the fact that she was already afraid and sighed, slowly stuffing his hands into his pockets.

"I'm not going to touch you or anything, I promise. You can come back over here." He whispered with guilty reassurance. Her brown eyes cast downward but quickly flicked back up at him and slowly, suspiciously, she edged back to where she stood before.

Draco could tell that this girl was clearly and visibly uncomfortable with his presence, but he decided to speak regardless.

"Who are you…?" He asked. She looked tiredly perplexed and silently lifted an eyebrow, so he elaborated, "I mean, what's your name?" There was a moment of silence in which she seemed to be considering whether or not the question was a trick.

"Jade." Her voice came out strained, almost making her discomfort audible. Draco nodded silently.

"I'm Draco." He stated simply, and feeling the unpleasantness of the situation rise in the air he added, "You've seen me before, I know."

Jade nodded slowly, and her already glum expression fell even further.

"…You were there the night they brought me here." It was Draco's turn to nod.

"Yes, that was me…but I had nothing to do with…_this_, I give my word." He saw her nod and look away, not being able to tell whether she believed him or not. The knot in his stomach gave another unfortunate tug, "…Well, Jade; Are you okay?"

"Pardon?"

"Are you okay?" He asked again, this time slower and clearer than before. Draco caught Jade wince as her hand brushed the rip in her shirt at her abdomen, no doubt where Snape had burned her with that sickening label.

"Just fine." She replied in a tone that Draco could not read as sarcasm or sincerity. He had no time to reply, for he heard footsteps and quiet chat in the distance making their way towards him from the other side of the dungeon and his nerves instantly tensed. Giving her a quick look that showed he was somewhat regretful, he hurried back off towards the stairs which led him out of the dungeon and back into the now incredibly silent, still school.

The students of Hogwarts were now in their third week of school, and to the surprise of many of them, it wasn't near as bad as they would have expected with Talcizar as headmaster. There was a noticeable change in the humor in the moods of the majority of the professors, but the children had been expecting it. After all, they had each been incredibly close with Dumbledore, and this was the only logical reason they could come up with for the sudden change.

Draco sat, once more wedged between the girth of Crabbe and Goyle, at their usual table in their potions class. Each day when he returned to this class, the urge to scream was so powerful that he often had to bite rather firmly down upon his tongue.

The man who stood at the front of the room, making snide remarks at the Gryffindor students and teaching complex potions that were near impossible to concoct without his help, was a disgusting, low excuse for a man. A disgusting, low excuse for a man that Draco had worshipped a year ago. Draco knew that just 

about every night since the very first night he had followed him down to the dungeons three weeks ago, Snape had returned and done hardly mention-worthy things to the girl, Jade.

This bought him back to the subject of Jade. She and the mayor had sent the other two, the couple, upstairs, and this meant that they had been alone down there for three straight weeks—with the exception of Snape. This was another area Draco didn't want to think about. He felt incredibly awful for not being able to bring himself to sneak down there to see what was going on, or rather, how they were, but he was nervous—he was Lucius Malfoy's son; what would people say if he were caught?

Little did Draco know at this point, his father was about to deliver him a gift, through none other than Snape himself.

The clock struck, letting them know that the class was over. Draco tiredly slid his bag off of the table and made to stand up and leave with his friends, but was interrupted by the last voice he wanted to hear.

"Mr. Malfoy! Come here for a moment, please." Snape's voice was cheery, and Draco's face instantly fell. He nodded for Crabbe and Goyle to leave without him, and they obeyed. With an unnoticeable sigh, Draco reluctantly made his way over to where Snape stood near his desk.

"Yes, sir?" Draco asked as the last student left the room and the door shut with a dull thud.

"Ah, no need to be so formal, Draco. I've got good news for you." A familiar bent smile twisted upon Snape's face, and Draco raised an eyebrow, "Yes, _good news_. I understand your birthday is next week?" To this, Draco nodded. This was pointless, and he'd really rather just go down to lunch with the others… "I spoke to your father a few hours ago."

"My father?"

"Yes, your father. You're aware, that we've got muggles on the premises, I assume?"

"Yes…"

"Do you know what they do?"

"They're…slaves, sir?" Snape grinned again.

"He has informed me that this is your sixteenth birthday, son."

"Yes, it is." Draco was getting rather annoyed with this useless back-and-forth, and would really rather have this prick make his point so that he could get as far away from him as possible.

"I'm also glad to hear that you're training to become a Death Eater…very nice, very nice indeed. You'll be a proficient hand to us. Ah, I'm sure you're getting tired of this, eh? Let me explain…For your birthday, Lucius decided to give you something suitable to what you are becoming, which is a man, and a Death Eater as all of the other men in your family." Snape chuckled, and was quiet for a moment before beginning again, "Do you know what these slaves do, Draco?"

Draco's stomach heaved and he smiled to cover his extreme discomfort.

"Uh…Slave-like things, I assume? Cleaning…and cooking…and what-have-you?"

"Yes, yes, all of that…but there's a particular one of these four that we have."

Draco felt his hands get icy and he gulped undiscernibly.

"I'm not sure I'm following you, Professor Snape."

Snape's broad smile grew ever wider and he leaned his hands down upon his desk, bringing his face very close to Draco's. He chortled a bit, and spoke.

"We've found you a candidate, Draco, to make you both a _real_ man, and an _exemplary_ Death Eater—if you know what I mean."

Draco felt everything he had ever eaten rise in his gut, and pale-faced, he rushed out of the room.

A/n: chapter 4 (not including the prologue) coming soon!


	5. Happy Birthday, Draco

The following Monday was the next time that Draco had –and was dreading– potions class with Severus Snape. If only this day in particular did not have to be his birthday; his "initiation" day, so to speak—though his father and Snape tied a delightful red bow on it and called it a _present_.

"Draco!" Snape cheerily called him over to his desk before class had begun. Plastering a fake smile upon his face, Draco went to him.

"I'm sorry about what happened on Friday, sir. I guess breakfast didn't _quite_ agree with me." He lied, attempting to make it sound convincing. He hadn't even eaten breakfast on Friday. Snape smiled anyway and began again.

"No, no, it's no trouble my boy. And happy birthday! You remember that this is a big day for you. Your father has also informed me that you'll be getting another, probably less exciting surprise along with the gift he's already giving to you, though he said it in jest—Ah, don't look at me like that. I won't tell you what it is, you'll just have to wait."

Draco managed to pull a pout and sighed, not giving any hint as to that he was essentially faking this conversation in its entirety.

"Yes. It's well worth the wait, son; Trust me." Snape gave Draco a wink that made him want to reach out and strangle the man, but instead he forced a smile. He still could not grasp how someone he had once considered an uncle now seemed like a stranger to him. "After everyone has been sent to bed, come down and meet me here. I'll take you down to the dungeons, all right?" He added, somewhat more hushed as the other students now filled the majority of the room. Draco nodded and walked back to his table, slumping into his seat.

He was in the biggest fix of his life. It wasn't that Draco had not felt guilty enough for neglecting to sneak down to the dungeons at his own will to see whatever had progressed with Jade and the mayor, for in a way he felt somewhat responsible for their situation. But now he was being _asked_ to go to Jade as a birthday present? _This_ was what his father and god knew how many others had done when they joined the Death Eaters; rape someone? Draco felt a pang of fear invade his body and he knew that this time it would take a little more than losing his breakfast to ease it… He was scared.

Draco had almost forgotten where he was until the small, enchanted grandfather clock in the corner struck and there was a shift in the atmosphere as the other students rose from their seats. Sighing, he stood as well and grabbed his bag, tiredly slinging it over his shoulder and pushing his lately disheveled blonde hair back as he left the room.

Lost in a rather unpleasant cloud of thought, he abandoned paying attention to where he was going and slammed into the person to the side of him, knocking the books from their hands and sending them flying to the floor. Without even realizing what he was doing, Draco kneeled down and picked them up, stuffing them back into the hands of whom had dropped them. When he looked up, his eyes met with none other than Hermione Granger—his "favorite" mudblood—and her two constant companions, Ron Weasley and Draco's _personal_ favorite, Harry Potter.

"What did you do _that_ for, Malfoy? Did _you_ slip something in with my books?" Hermione asked rather coldly; the events of their second year were quite well known between the four of them, when Draco's father had slipped Tom Riddle's journal in with Ron's little sister's school books. Draco was nearly too absorbed in his own problems to remember that no, he could not stand this girl. If she _weren't_ a mudblood, he would hate her for being such a damned perfectionist.

"It's my birthday, Granger, I guess I'm just feeling nice. I suppose you're simply lucky today." He replied snidely, plastering his normal sneer upon his face. The three of them were about to turn and leave and his face fell slightly. He did not want to speak to her any longer than he needed to, but there was something that was still bothering him, "Hey… Granger."

"What is it _now_?" She asked with a sigh and a raised eyebrow.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Will it be a stupid question, or just one of the usual _exceptionally_ stupid ones…?"

Draco sighed and shut his eyes for a moment. Yes, she had a reason for the way she was acting—a valid reason that Draco's sudden change in attitude was causing him to begin to realize she had, and now he needed an answer from her. He should have expected it. No matter; He had more important things to worry about.

"How long… how long could a person stay stuck in isolation without…losing their minds, or like…dying?"

Hermione raised her eyebrow again beneath her puffy bangs.

"Well, I'll give you this much, Malfoy—it wasn't a stupid question, just very odd…"

"Please just answer me, Granger."

The three of them stood in quiet shock, looking at him for a moment. Had he said _please_? What was that about?

"I… I dunno. Without food and water probably a week or so at the most. With it, maybe longer. Several months, I guess, depending on what they were surviving on. Why?"

Draco ignored her question and grunted somewhat of a "thanks" and turned to go on about his way, when Ron spoke up.

"Hey, Malfoy! You're not looking too great. Losing out on your beauty sleep, I suppose?"

Draco stopped dead in his tracks. True, he was not sleeping, but he also was not about to let any of _them_ know it. If he hated Hermione, he hated Ron an impossible amount more. There were, of course, several things he could say to this, but since standing in the middle of a crowded corridor speaking to a Weasley was not how he wanted to spend any part of his birthday, he decided to keep it simple.

"If that were so, Weasley, your mum's not slept a day in her life." And with that, he turned and stalked away, smirking to himself as he caught Harry and Hermione restraining their friend out of the corner of his eye.

-

'Grand fucking birthday affair this turned out to be…' Draco muttered to himself as he sat at the Slytherin table that night for dinner, once again barely touching what was in front of him and watching his friends gorge themselves. Each moment that passed was another moment he dreaded what was to come shortly after dinner. Draco still had some two-and-a-half hours until the time he was to meet Professor Snape, and somewhere in that time frame he needed to come up with something, _anything_ in the form of a plan to get out of it.

-

Harry rubbed his forehead uncomfortably as he ate. For about two or so weeks before school was back in session his scar had been prickling slightly on and off, but he didn't bother mentioning it. With all that had happened in the past summer with the loss of his only real "family", a close friend, and an incredible mentor, he had expected it and thought nothing important of it. Of course Voldemort was happy—what didn't the prick have to be happy about?

"D'you think he's finally gone off the deep end?" Ron questioned, his mouth full of food and nodding in the direction of the Slytherin table. Harry and Hermione both glanced over to see Draco sitting with his forefingers pressed to his temples, mumbling to himself.

"It was bound to happen sometime, Ron." Harry replied tiredly. Hermione smirked a bit before going back to her book and Ron merely shrugged as if to agree and the subject was dropped. But, whether Harry really believed that Draco was crazy… he was not sure.

-

"'You coming to bed, Draco?" A friend of Draco's asked him that night in the common room. Draco firmly believed that this teenage boy did not belong on the Slytherin team—he was far too good a person. Draco himself was even beginning to feel a bit uncomfortable in the dungeon quarters where he had spent six years of his life.

"Ahh… no. No, I'm going to sit up for a few more minutes. 'Not quite tired yet."

"All right then. 'Night, Drake, and happy birthday!" The stout boy said cheerfully.

"Heh…Thanks. G'night, Eric." He replied, chuckling awkwardly, and with that he watched the boy bounce up the stairs to the boys dormitory.

As soon as he was alone Draco sank into the black leather couch at one end of the common room. He immediately stood back up again, stuffing his hands into his pockets and moving to stand by the fire that was now dying down. The leather couch had been cold, and in a sense almost intimidating; as if, if he let himself sit there any longer it would rightly consume him, just to top off the grand and glorious evening he was having. His gray eyes flashed up to the black-wooden clock upon the wall and he inhaled shakily. Ten minutes until Snape would be expecting him, which means there were five minutes until he had to leave the common room.

He had just under five short minutes to come up with some sort of a plan to get himself out of this.

He could fake an illness? No. He had crossed paths with Snape several times that day and he was well aware that Draco was "feeling better".

Pretend to be too tired? No. Then Snape would tell him he could "make up for it" some other time. The thought alone made him nauseous.

Fake his own death? No… _What_?! Where had _that_ come from? He had definitely missed far too many nights of sleep… Draco looked at the clocked and winced, cursing under his breath. It was time to go.

The moment he pulled his eyes away from the fire and began to turn around to leave, it died completely. Begrudgingly, Draco made his way to the drawbridge-like door and muttering to himself, he pushed it open and carefully headed off in the direction of Snape's potions room.

Snape had apparently been waiting for Draco when he arrived, a broad smile upon his face.

"Draco!" He said in greeting, patting Draco's arm which instantly made his blood run ice-cold, "Are you ready?"

Draco chuckled in discomfort once again, but Snape luckily did not catch on. He tried to use the same buoyancy that Snape had.

"Ahhh…of course I'm ready!"

"Excellent! Come along, your gifts await you."

The way that Snape had said the word 'gifts' made Draco's hands literally twitch with the sensation of killing him with his bare fists. He instead dug them further into his pockets and followed Snape in the direction of the forbidden wing—the dungeons.

Snape and Draco walked in silence—a bouncy clomp in Snape's steps and the lazy plodding of Draco's right behind him were all that could be heard in the familiar seemingly endless corridor. Unlike the first time that Draco made this trip, he wished that the hall really _was_ endless, but all too soon for him they came to the thick steel door at the end. Snape pulled out his wand and muttered an unlocking spell —not one that Draco remembered, it sounded nothing like 'alohomora'— and the door creaked ajar. He pushed it the rest of the way open and pulling a very thick candle from the wall just inside the door, Snape motioned for Draco to follow him down the descending spiral staircase.

The moment Draco began to step down the stone steps, he was hit with a rush of cold air which carried an uncomfortable feeling of déjà vu to Draco, who shuddered and continued to follow the dark figure in front of him. Stair by stair, the urge to turn around and run like hell was building inside of Draco and just when he had about built up the courage to flee, he felt his feet meet the dungeon floor. Snape wheeled around to face him, the smirk that Draco hated still dancing upon his thin lips. It was no sooner than this had occurred that Draco saw a very familiar platinum haired man step out from off to the side. Lucius.

"Son!" Lucius said merrily, stepping over to Draco and briefly embracing him before taking a step back to look at him. Seeing the shocked, blank expression upon his son's face, Lucius held a hand up clad in a snug black leather glove as if to stop Draco from saying anything. "Ah. I know what you're thinking." Draco's head was beginning to pound and he nodded wearily, giving his father a half-smirk.

"What's that…?" He questioned, hoping that this was all just a bout of madness he was experiencing.

"I can't stay, but this was the only time that I could get away. It's a busy time of year at the Ministry, you know," Lucius said, sounding somewhat dispirited by this. Draco nodded and let his father continue, taking note that Snape had now moved across the dungeon, idly sorting through something-or-other, leaving the two of them alone. "I wanted to let you know, Draco, that… I'm proud of you."

"You are…?" Draco felt a surge of guilt from both sides of his conscience tug at his mind. Lucius never said anything like that to him a day in his life. Hearing it made him smile against his better judgement, which made his father smile and Draco felt even worse.

"I am. You are becoming a Malfoy man, and with that comes the glory of being a Death Eater, which I know that you're excited about…"

'If only you knew…' Draco thought.

"…and though you may not know it," Lucius began, then smiled slyly and lowered his voice, "I, myself, and every other Malfoy man before you have done what you are about to do on our sixteenth birthdays as well." He looked down at his watch and his smile faded, "Damn… I'm sorry Draco; I'd stay longer if I could. But, it was nice seeing you today, son! Enjoy the rest of your birthday—I have a feeling you will. Thank Professor Snape for me again?"

"Aha… I will. Thanks, dad." 'Yeah, thanks a lot.' Draco replied, and with a look that made Draco feel worse about not wanting to follow his family's 'tradition', Lucius smiled proudly at him and apparated. A few seconds later, Snape came back over to Draco from the other side of the dungeon, still smiling.

"Your father just left?"

"Err…yes. He wanted me to thank you again."

"Ah. Just like him —it's really nothing. I've known your family for many, many years, as you know. Well, I won't hold you up any longer. Follow me." Snape said happily for what seemed to Draco for the hundredth time that night and walked off in the same direction that Draco had snuck after him the first day of school. He knew exactly where they were going and once they passed the cell that had at one time held the newlywed couple, Marc and Charity, he knew that they were only a few yards from their destination. Snape stopped in front of the cell that Draco knew was Jade's and smiled, "All right, here we are! Any charms or spells you need to use, you're free to use them. Hell, son, you're free to do whatever you want. The locks are very simple, they're the standard, not like the one you probably heard me using on the upstairs door; I'll teach you about that one later on. Well then. That's about it, so…" Snape muttered the spell under his breath and pulled the cell door open, "I'll leave you to your business!" Snape stepped over to Draco, who was suddenly glad that he firmly didn't believe that his complexion could pale any more that night, "Congratulations, Draco. I'll see you tomorrow in class—Have fun." He said in a tone close to that of Lucius's, and with another wink, Snape turned and walked off in the direction of the exit.

Draco stood there for a few moments until he heard Snape's footsteps dull and the dungeon door creak shut once again. He pulled his hands out of his pockets and looked down at them, cursing under his breath when he saw them shaking and angrily shoved them back inside. He cast his gaze across the hall to where he had heard the mayor a few weeks earlier. He heard nothing this time; no snoring, no heavy breathing, no movement. Nothing. He shuddered as a feeling that could be nothing but bad overcame him. Taking a deep breath, he slowly stepped into the cell shutting the door behind him and simply stared out for a moment, still gripping the bars. He heard the frantic jingling of the impossibly thick chains from behind him and he shut his eyes —this was making it much worse.

Slowly he turned around, not wanting to open his eyes and immediately regretted it when he did. Just as before there was Jade, who had stood and backed herself against the back wall. Her eyes grew a little wider when she realized who it was and her body stiffened a little. Draco sighed. He knew that if his father knew what he was about to do, he'd either be disowned or his life would be made a living hell, but he just could not do it.

He slowly walked over to the corner and stood before her, keeping his distance.

"Yea, I know. It's me again." He said reluctantly, wanting to break something or Snape, preferably. He heard the heavy chains rattle a bit as she shifted slightly against the wall and locked her jaw before speaking.

"Well…go on. Get it over with then." Jade replied after quite a few moments sounding as if it was difficult to collect herself, and Draco was not surprised. He would not want to speak to himself, either. It was then that he realized what she had said and raised an eyebrow.

"What…?"

"I know what you've come for. So just go on with it, since it's your birthday and all…" She explained with a hint of what Draco could distinguish as resentful sarcasm. He sighed again and looked down, but then reached for her wrists. Draco felt her flinch slightly at his touch, which made him feel even guiltier. Pulling his wand from his pocket, he briefly mumbled the unlocking spell and the snug fetters about her wrists fell to the ground with the cold thud. After this Draco released her wrists which he noticed were now thrashed beneath the irons and rose kneeled down briefly, placing the wand on the floor near the side of the room close to Jade. He then stood against the wall several feet away from her and slumped down haggardly.

"I won't do anything to you. I promise."

It was Jade's turn to look tiredly confused.

"…What…?"

Draco let out a short breath and smiled stiffly.

"I know what I was supposed to do. I can't do it. I won't do it. And I promise, I won't touch you, I won't hurt you—I'll stay over here. You can even hang on to that if you want." He said in a bored tone, nodding towards the wand he placed on the floor. Jade eyed it for a moment then looked back at him briefly before easing her position, slumping against the wall sitting down like Draco had moments earlier. She shuddered almost unnoticeably from what Draco knew had to be the icy draft of the dungeon, and stared blankly at the nothingness in the corner across from her. Several minutes of silence passed between them when Draco finally spoke. "I'm really sorry, Jade."

Jade slowly looked over at him and blinked in what Draco read to be surprise and she carefully sat up a bit straighter.

"Why? I should be the one saying I'm sorry."

"No, you shouldn't. I wanted to come back down here every day for the past three weeks because I knew that you and they mayor were alone down here except for…you know. I felt bad about not coming and I still do… I was nervous."

"It's all right—really. I don't blame you. I would be nervous about coming down here, too, if I were anyone else. I think diseases are born down here. But, don't worry about it anymore, I'll be fine here. And I apologize, because chances are, I ruined your birthday. I doubt you want to stay down here." She added with a chuckle and smirked a little, staring off at nothing again.

"Hah… no. Trust me; you, were probably the only thing that _didn't_ ruin my day. It was everything else that fucked it up."

"Oh… I'm sorry." She said sincerely, then looked tired again. It was quiet for a moment, but there was something that was still nagging at Draco considerably.

"Jade? What happened to the other man that was down here with you…? Where've they taken him?"

She froze and Draco saw her body stiffen uncomfortably. Her eyes shut and she flexed her jaw slightly before replying.

"He couldn't take it."

"What do you mean…?"

"He snapped." It was then that Draco remembered that there had been more people the night that he saw Jade being taken. Two other cages, but he only counted four muggles that he knew about.

"There were more of you, wasn't there?" Jade was quiet again for a minute and then nodded once.

"They took Mayor Kelly, his wife and their son and daughter. They were down here with all of us for about two weeks when that man came down here. He told Mayor Kelly that either he or his family would be freed; it was up to him to choose which. The mayor, obviously, chose for his family to be freed. That man filed his wife, his son and daughter out of their cell and killed them right in front of us without any warning. He said, 'I didn't say HOW they'd be freed, did I?' Mayor Kelly started losing it a little, but he'd always be able to pull himself together enough; to recover a little from it. But he finally snapped about a little over a week ago. He started throwing fits, made a huge commotion every night. He _forgot who I was_. That man came back after a few days, dragged him out of the cell and killed him just there." She nodded slightly in the direction of the hallway between her own cell and where the man had once been kept.

Draco turned and looked, and as if he were seeing it he felt his blood run cold. Snap had single-handedly killed an entire family with no remorse; Jade had witnessed it all.

They sat in quiet for a long time, Draco sitting with his head tilted back leaning against the wall with Jade in a similar position several feet to his left. He had let his mind wander and was lost in thought when he heard Jade's low voice again.

"How long are they making you stay here?"

"I don't have a set time. Whenever I'm 'done'. So, whenever you want me out of here, I'm gone."

"Oh… Well, I won't force you to stay or go. Leave whenever you want—it's not exactly the greatest place to spend time, I know." She stuck one of her hands out for the wand off to the side of her and extended it to him—he could tell she felt a little uncomfortable touching it, so he got up and gently took it from her.

Draco gave her a weak smile that she returned, and then she looked down at the irons she had been rid of for a short while.

"Aren't you gonna put them back on…?" She questioned quietly. Draco froze. He didn't want to, no. That was why he had taken them off of her in the first place, though he knew that if Snape came down the next day and saw her without them, it wasn't Draco who would have to pay the price for it. He picked them up, feeling the rather short chains drag against the stone floor for a second before looking down at them briefly and felt another surge of nausea. Inside the cuffs were small, jagged rips of iron that had obviously been tearing at Jade's wrists for a little under three months. She looked up at him nervously, waiting with anything but excitement and carefully Draco once again placed them over her wrists. Muttering the locking spell, the irons roughly slammed shut and she gasped, quietly attempting to hide a grimace as Draco attempted to keep himself from looking away.

He was about to turn to leave, when he heard her behind him.

"Draco?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you…so much. If it isn't too much to ask… Could you make sure nothing's happened to them upstairs?"

He paused. After hearing what she had told him about the mayor and his family, Draco could not blame her for being nervous. He was a little nervous, too, but nevertheless Draco felt his first real smile in several days spread across his face.

"You're welcome. Thank you, too. And I will go see how they are, I'll give you my word. Look, I'll try to come back…"

"Draco, you really don't have to. I don't want it to feel obligatory to you, unless you…you know. Changed your mind…"

"No. Trust me… I could never do it. I guess I'll see you, then." He said finally. She merely nodded tiredly and slumped back against the wall as he turned to leave. Pulling the door open, he stepped out and looked back once before it shut on its own, locking as well, and he had nothing to do but sigh and leave for yet another sleepless night.


	6. Caught

Draco could not help but feel uncomfortable after his birthday meeting with Jade. The only place that had been made for him in the world was the wrong place for him; For the first time in his life he felt solidly alone. Although talking to Jade had unnerved him it had also been strangely comforting – speaking to someone outside of the magical world, someone else who had fallen victim to it.

It had been nearly ten days since then, and Draco's sleep failed to improve if in fact he slept at all. Coming to terms with his hatred for Snape had only made it more difficult to look him in the face during his class. And, though he did not _want_ to, Draco had begun to notice a slight change in the man's attitude. His once-cheerfulness had faded a little and he had become a bit more biting; A bit more Snape-ish, Draco thought. It may be hard, but he knew that the attitude change could not have meant anything good and so decided to question him about it as a friend would.

"Professor Snape?" Draco came back to Snapes office a few minutes after dinner was over, as he had noticed that Snape hadn't shown up, and approached the man who appeared lost in irritation at his desk, surrounded by piles of books and parchment, scribbling words down with the quill in his hand. He looked up, and his expression eased slightly when he saw who it was.

"Oh... Draco. Can I help you, son...?" He asked, his tone somewhat bored. Draco's hands flinched miserably as they did every time he crossed paths with this man, but he forced a look of stony concern onto his face.

"You've seemed a bit upset, sir. I was wondering if everything was all right?"

"Ah. That... Yes. Just stress, unfortunately. On the other hand, I've a better way to deal with it this year, I suppose. Men get no breaks, Draco. None. Speaking of which..."

Draco looked at him, pretending to be interested.

"Yes?"

Snape smiled the sickest smile that Draco had ever seen.

"Are you enjoying your little… _pet_ as much as I am, if I may ask?" He added with a wink, as if it were some perverse code between the two of them and Draco felt his face fall in shock. He then remembered that losing control meant losing _everything_, and he carefully answered, attempting to mask his disgust as shy modesty.

"Very well, thank you sir."

Snape chuckled a bit after Draco spoke.

"There's no need to be _shy_, boy! In all honesty, I go down there nearly every day."

"Ahh... heh. I've er... I've been down there a few times myself, sir." Draco lied, attempting to keep the conversation casual. It was true, after all. Snape laughed.

"You get more and more like your father every day, son! 'Can't blame you about _that_ for a second, though."

Draco decided that he had heard quite enough.

"Well... I'd better go. I'll uh... I'll see you tomorrow, Professor Snape."

"Goodnight, Draco." Snape leaned back comfortably in his chair as Draco left, still clearly amused. Once outside the classroom, Draco remembered something despite his fuming—Jade's request.

Just about everyone was back in their house common rooms by this time after dinner, so Draco took the opportunity to sneak down the kitchens just as he had promised to see and hopefully speak with Marc and Charity. He was unsure if the fact that he was getting used to sneaking around Hogwarts was a good thing or not.

He carefully made his way past the Great Hall and around the back of it to the doors that lead into the kitchen. Having never been here before, Draco hesitated for a moment and took a deep breath before pushing the doors open. His jaw instantly dropped an inch or so.

"That's _him_!" An angry sounding male voice followed a female gasp. Draco saw both Marc and Charity attached to very short chains similar to Jade's that were obviously bewitched. It was clear that they were worked rather hard, and that they were both exhausted—but not enough to take Draco's presence lightly.

"_You're_ the one?!" Charity exclaimed, a flicker of sharp hatred in her eyes. The man, Marc, mumbled what to Draco appeared to be "calm down", and looked back up at their intruder expectantly.

"I'm the _what_, now?" Draco questioned, somewhat baffled, having not expected this particular onslaught at all. Marc took it upon himself to reply, his tone still cold.

"We know who you are, _and_ what you've done. They gave her to you as a fucking present?!"

It was then that Draco realized what they were talking about, and his shock eased a bit.

"Oh…that. Actually, that's why I'm here…" Draco began, somewhat uneasily taking another step into the room towards them. They both looked up at him, their fury now becoming replaced with confusion, "You've heard about the entire ordeal, with what was supposed to happen, I guess… I promise you, I did nothing to her."

Charity raised a suspicious eyebrow.

"But you're one of _them_, aren't you? How can we know that you're not just lying to us…?"

"One of them…A wizard? Yeah…I am. The son of a monster, yes. But I could never bring myself to do…that; Most certainly not, I assure you. And you can know that I'm not lying, by the fact that I'm here." They looked at him in question once again, and he sighed quietly. "Jade asked me to come and make sure that the two of you were all right. She's worried about you."

Charity's face immediately softened, and Marc's simply blanked with no expression at all.

"She's worried about us, Marc…" She said wistfully, almost as if she did not believe what he had said. Marc was evidently still not convinced.

"When did she ask you this?"

"I've gone down to the dungeons a few times to talk to her, and last time she asked about the both of you. I promised I'd find out, so here I am."

The two sitting on the floor before him were silent for a moment, but their temperament calmed almost immediately and finally, almost begrudgingly, Marc spoke again.

"Well, I can't say that much has improved…"

"They haven't done anything too outrageous to us… We haven't been touched, or hurt… Being chained in here for the day and working at night…it's difficult, but nothing we can't bear." Charity began.

"I'll have to take over for Charity in a few weeks time, though." Marc added with a sigh, briefly glancing up at Draco before looking back over at his wife, who sat tiredly slumped a few feet away. Draco felt his palms become clammy and he hoped that what Marc was referring to, was not what he was thinking. That would be the worst case scenario.

"Wh…why's that?" He asked nervously.

"Well…Marc and I are a bit over three months pregnant, now…I don't think they know that, yet, I'm not showing much…" Charity mumbled, disgust in her voice. Draco tried to suppress a gulp. It _was_ the worst, but he most certainly could not let either of them know it.

"…Oh. I uh…I see." Draco was nearly about to turn to leave, when Marc spoke again.

"Well…?"

"Well, what?" Draco questioned carefully, raising a pale blonde eyebrow.

"Aren't you going to tell us about Jade and Mayor Kelly, now? Since you say you've been down there a few times, that is." Marc said in a slightly colder tone than he may have meant. Draco froze, and stared blankly at him before slowly, reluctantly looking over at Charity who looked up at him expectantly, pleadingly.

"Please…tell us the truth."

He winced, feeling a pang of immeasurable guilt run through him. They had every right not to be lied to, and Draco had every reason to acquiesce their demands. He took a shallow breath inward and shifted uncomfortably, slowly folding his arms across his chest.

"Er…uh. She's…They're still using her for…"

"Don't tell me that…that _animal_ is still…_taking advantage _of her…" Charity pleaded partially to herself, knowing the answer but not wanting to have it made certain. Draco felt yet another painful ache in his chest, but she had asked for the truth. As miserable as he felt for delivering it, they had asked for the truth and the least he could do for these people, friends of Jade, was to be honest with them. Taking another deep breath and shutting his eyes, he spoke in a voice barely over a whisper.

"She's raped on a regular basis. I've no clue if yours are the same, but there are shards inside of her wrist shackles which have been cutting her." There. He had said it, and he had been blunt. It may have been difficult, agonizing even, but he had said it. Slowly, he reopened his eyes.

Marc and Charity stared at him in silent shock for several moments and Draco continued to feel worse as tears now brimmed Charity's eyes. Despite their shock, both of them could tell that the news was as easy for him to break, as it was for them to receive it, and for this reason they decided not to press very much further upon that particular subject. Several moments passed uncomfortably before Charity spoke again.

"How's Mayor Kelly?"

Draco stiffened uncomfortably and his jaw locked. He didn't know the man, but he knew it would be much harder for them to take then news than it would be for him to break it to them.

"They've killed him."

Charity sobbed once in shock and Draco saw her hands start to shake. Her husband shifted closer to her, holding her as much as he could in the restraints. Marc's face was pained, but he faced Draco with a bit more composure.

"How's…how's her health…?" He questioned, keeping himself calm as his voice broke the deafening silence. This was one thing that Draco had not really considered. Each time he had been down to the dungeons, his mind was too clouded by shock and fury that he had not taken notice of whether she may be in good health or not. Snape had told him that yes, she _was_ being fed, though not on a very regular basis –more like whenever Snape remembered or could be bothered– and even if she was sick there was nothing that anyone was going to _do_ about it. Draco certainly didn't know any medical spells, and those that he did had only made people worse in the past. But alas, the answer to this he didn't know.

"I—I don't know. I'm sorry…" And with that, he turned to leave once more.

"Hey—" It was Marc again, and Draco turned to face them awkwardly, "_If_ you ever go down there again… let her know… Let her know we're thinking about her, okay?" He asked. Draco was still for a moment but then nodded, and with a ghost of a smile, he left them and headed back to the Slytherin common room.

What he did not notice, though, was the pair of green eyes that watched him emerge from the kitchen, the faint scar upon his forehead wrinkled in perplexity.


	7. Because You're Human

"I dunno, it was the strangest thing…"

"It seems strange enough. Why in the world would _Malfoy_ be in the kitchen?" Hermione said, replying to Harry as they sat in Transfiguration. Seated on the other side of Hermione, Ron's attempts to turn the small brown rabbit before him into an ill-tempered plant proved futile.

"Of course it's sketchy, it's Malfoy…" With one final flick of his wand he gave up and placed it back onto the desk near the rabbit, whose constantly twitching nose and round, unblinking eyes seemed to mock him, "Stupid rodent…"

"Students!" Professor McGonagall's recently dull voice came from the front of the large, open room and the pupils before her looked up, "I can see that the _majority_ of you have been successful," Ron's cheeks flushed. "But, I ask that those of you who are still having trouble walk around a little to the people who've a firm grasp on it. Watch, and learn."

Harry automatically shifted to his right to pay attention to what Hermione was doing. Ron, to their surprise, pushed himself away from the table with a cheeky smile and made his way to the other side of the room—The Slytherin side. Hermione raised an eyebrow briefly before shrugging his actions off and returned to her demonstration for Harry. Harry, on the other hand continued to watch Ron, now very curious and a bit uneasy. He had no idea what Ron may do. It was his turn to raise a surprised eyebrow as he saw that the redhead was walking directly to Draco Malfoy, who was seated at the adjacent table. At first, this action seemed rather bold, but then Harry realized that today Malfoy was not accompanied by his two "bodyguards".

"Hey, Malfoy! All alone today?" Draco's gray eyes, visibly bloodshot, flicked up at Ron coldly.

"They were allergic to the root that _oaf_ used in Care of Magical Creatures… Now, what the bloody hell do you want, Weasley?" Draco's words were cold, that Harry could hear; but there was something different about his tone. Though it was as icy as ever, it was also limp, tired and almost beaten.

"I heard you were hanging out in the kitchens the other night. Why, was there some kind of marshmallow roast that we weren't invited to?" Ron sounded impish, enjoying Malfoy without his precious "company". For an instant, Harry thought that Draco would have killed Ron as he knew that he was quite capable of it even _without_ Crabbe and Goyle, but then something strange happened when Draco in fact did not kill him.

"For your goddamned information, I was delivering a recipe request to those ghastly elves from Professor Flitwick. If you have a point to all of this, get to it, please."

Ron's smile immediately vanished and he turned on his heels, returning to Harry and Hermione, sliding back into his seat on the left of her.

"I am never, _ever_ eating school food again…" He muttered. Hermione rolled her eyes, still trying to explain the spell to Harry.

"Yes he will," She said under her breath, unheard by Ron, and that was it. The subject may have been dropped, but Harry could still feel that something was not quite right.

-

Draco's run-in with Ron during class the previous day hit him with a few nasty realizations. One of those being that if he was going to continue to sneak around the school at night, he'd need to take more care considering if he were caught, unlike last time. This way he could avoid questions from nosey, hideously freckled Gryffindors.

The second of these things was his recollection of what Hermione's response had been when he asked her about how long a person could stay in isolation. He estimated that Jade had been there for two months before school began, and it was now nearly the middle of October. _'I… I dunno…without food and water probably a week or so at the most. With it, maybe longer. Several months, I guess, depending on what they had to survive on._ _'_

He sighed. Jade didn't seem like any kind of weakling but _everyone_ had limits, especially in conditions like these. If he _didn't_ go back down to the dungeons, he'd never forgive himself. However, that thought had long since worked its way out of his mind. The only question was _when_.

His final uncomfortable shock was Marc and Charity. If their baby was born in Hogwarts, it would be killed without question. This was, of course, if it was decided to wait _that_ long. Followers of the Dark Side certainly would not encourage the reproduction of muggles and may simply kill Charity during her pregnancy, killing two birds with one stone.

-

It was yet another reluctant entrance to Severus Snape's classroom that morning for Draco after yet another sleepless night. He slid onto his seat behind the front table lazily. His head gave an unfortunate pound when he realized that Snape was not yet there and waltzed in just before the entire class arrived, knowing that there were only a few places that _he_ would be. As the class began, Draco simply buried his face in his arms on the desk before him as he chose to do every day in this miserable excuse for a class. Snape never cared. He would never question Draco unless he volunteered; a perk of being the teacher's favorite student. It was quite a while into Snape's lecture, however, when something caused Draco to snap to immediate attention.

Snape had pushed the long sleeves of his black shirt up in order to submerge his hands into the concoction within the deep, black cauldron at the front of the room. It was not the potion though, that attracted Draco's attention, but rather what he saw upon Snape's forearms. Going up and down the length of the man's pale arms were long, deep red scratches, inflicted with enough force to have clearly been bleeding. Draco felt what little color was left in his face instantly drain from him.

These marked the sign of a struggle and it was apparent to Draco right away that the struggle could have only been with one person. His stomach sank. He buried his head further into his arms to block out the sight—it was time to go back.

-

Draco gripped his wand beneath his long black velvet robes and pushed his way pushed through the crowd coming in the opposite direction, on their way to the Great Hall for dinner. He was completely lost in thought, not caring about how many people he roughly shoved as he passed. Only when he heard his name being called, did he even briefly glance up.

"Draco!"

Draco turned to his left to see Crabbe's rather round body trying to keep up with his quick pace but did not slow nor stop for his friend. He looked at him quickly and grunted to acknowledgement his presence.

"'You comin' to dinner?" Crabbe asked, now panting at this physical activity that he was not used to.

"Later." Was all that Draco said and continued to walk. Crabbe slowed to a stop and stared after him confused, but shrugged it off and let the calling of food carry him off with the rest of the crowd. Draco hurried down the heavy stone steps that led to the dark endless hallway that he loathed passionately. Wanting to pass it as fast as possible, he changed his fast walk to a steady jog and pulled his wand out the moment he saw the glinting of the rings upon the door glinting dully in the light from the torches.

Approaching it, Draco resentfully muttered the spell that Snape had taught him and entered, beginning the descent down the spiral stone staircase at more of a brisk canter than usual. Finally stepping onto the floor of the dungeons, the sudden rush of freezing air hit him in the face and he winced uncomfortably but pulled his robes tighter around him and continued to walk, making his way towards Jade's cell block. Reaching it, he turned the corner and walked all the way to the end.

Sure enough, Draco could make out the outline of Jade's body towards the back of the cell. Not bothering to wait until she noticed him he raised his wand once more and unlocked the cell door, pulled it open and entered, jumping slightly as it slammed shut behind him. The torches several feet above his head ignited magically. It was then that he realized that Jade was still sitting against the wall, looking up at him quizzically.

"You came back…?"

Her appearance was what slapped Draco with absolute shock. It was obvious that Snape had been physically abusing her in more ways than he had been, though she seemed too reluctantly exhausted to be concerned with it at the moment. She had a black eye and what were certainly finger bruises on her neck, a few more littered across her arms and legs from what he could see through the tears in her jeans. He ignored her question and sat on his knees in front of her.

"What the hell did he _do_ to you?!" He questioned, half to Jade and half to himself out of shock. An impish, tried smirk spread across her face.

"Nothing that I couldn't have done to him, but he'll never play fair." She replied, gesturing to the new ankle shackles and impossibly thick, heavy chain draped across her waist and bound to the wall on the other side of her; both in addition to the same wrist shackles she had worn for months.

Draco was about to reply with seriousness, but stopped and felt himself give her a small half smile as well.

"Yeah, I saw your damage. Now, if only I were half as brave to actually do something similar myself, if not much worse. That man deserves it more than anyone I've ever met… Are you all right, though? Your voice is scratchy." Draco was just as surprised by his own sudden burst of concern as Jade apparently was and he stopped himself from going any further, deciding simply to let her reply.

"That's what a few months of silenced screaming will do to a person, I suppose. Why do you think he deserves it? He seems to like you as he would a son." She inquired quietly after a moment, a hint of obvious bitterness evident through her visible fatigue.

Draco felt another throe of guilt and sighed.

"I'm not sure if you knew or not," He began unsteadily, "But my full name, is Draco _Malfoy_. My father is Lucius Malfoy, and in the Wizarding world, he's a hair short of God… _now_, anyway. And I'll be honest—we're rich, awful people. Every single male member of my family has done exactly what I was supposed to do to you on his sixteenth birthday. That's the sort of sick 'rite of passage' they consider. This past year, and I don't know _why_, but I can't stand it anymore— what's expected from me. To be frank, I'm not sure if this is ever what I really wanted. I just did it _because_ it's what's expected from me. That's why I refuse to do it. And I know that if I'm found out, I'll be disowned and my life will be made hell, but I… just can't."

All the while he spoke, Jade listened without speaking. There was a moment of silence between them before she began.

"You're _human_, Draco—that's _why_," She started, her voice monotone as if she didn't believe what he had said, "And you're right; it _is_ horrible… and I'm sorry that you have to go through that in your family. I'm sorrier that you're supposed to enjoy it. But you're doing exactly what you want to, and even though you may not think _you're_ sure of it just yet, _I_ respect it. I'm not just saying that because… you know… didn't "do" anything to me." There was a moment of quiet and Jade looked over at him only to find herself smirking at his expression which appeared highly confused and surprised, "What's the matter? I didn't know I came off as _that_ much of a stone-faced bitch…" She added with a quiet laugh.

Draco snapped out of his odd daze and his face switched from confusion that only came close to reflecting the sheer mortification that he felt.

"Wh-what?? No, that's not… that's not what I was…"

"I was joking—it's okay." Jade said, leaning her head back on the wall and shutting her eyes, "Draco?"

"Yes…?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"Yes." He said, and braced himself. Whatever she asked, he decided, may not be something that was pleasant for him to give an answer to, but he was in no position to deny her of one.

"Why were so many people I know killed that night…? That night my town was raided. People I grew up with and have known forever… Why did I have to watch them die?"

For a moment, Draco saw the break in Jade's solid attitude; the side he saw when she spoke about Charity and Marc on a previous visit—a memory that reminded him of another upsetting bit of news he'd have to deliver to her soon.

"Among my 'kind'," Draco began reluctantly, "there is a good side—the light side—, and the bad side—the dark side. These two sides have been feuding for years before I was even born, centuries I suppose. My family is and always has been, followers of the dark side, and its current leader—Lord Voldemort. Beneath all of this madness is their belief that witches and wizards that are pureblooded, or with both parents being full-blooded magic, are superior to everyone else. This means especially to muggles—what we call non-magic people."

Jade scoffed and did not bother opening her eyes.

"Like _me_."

"…Yes. For a long while, the light side of Wizardry was in authority, though there were still several members of the dark side that managed to stay on top, like my father, the man who comes down here, Severus Snape, and our new headmaster Raiken Talcizar. It's politics, same as anything else these days. This past summer, as you know, there was a dark side rebellion at the order of Lord Voldemort, who is too weak to attack on his own. He put people like my father in charge to carry out his bidding, and they planned to rid the area of as many muggles as possible; exterminate them. I can't believe I used to actually _want_ to take a part in all of it… My father and Snape are both members of a group directly allied with Voldemort called the Death Eaters. Those were all of the people who raided your town that night, and that is precisely what I have been raised to become and will be forced into by the end of this year." By this time, Draco's anger was beginning to slice through his tone.

There was yet another moment of silence, this one longer than the others and Draco half thought that Jade had fallen asleep. He looked over to see her eyes still shut, but almost as if she could see him, she spoke calmly at that very second.

"What do _you_ want?"

"What…?" He asked, perplexed.

"You say they want to _force_ _you_ into becoming a… 'Death Eater'…? Well, what do _you_ want?"

"Do I have a _choice_, Jade?!" It had come out harsher than he had meant for it to, and for a moment he thought she would strangle him with the chains attached to her wrists, had she the energy. Then, she surprised him again when she let her head slide to face him and opened her eyes.

"Yes, you do. You had the choice to take advantage of me or not, didn't you? And you didn't. There's nothing that could've stopped you if you'd wanted to, either, Draco, it's not like _I've_ got a wand! And the fact that you come down here at all… That is a _choice_; one that you never _had_ to make. I won't press you to tell me why you've made it, but to me that makes you a good person—I don't care how your family wants you to be." By this time her voice, which had been in a poor condition before, had begun to come out as little over a whisper and she realized this. It irritated her, he could tell, but she gave up anyway and leaned her head back once more, deciding that her point had been made.

Draco looked down at his hands, knowing that Jade had just ended that part of their conversation and rather fixedly so, and he decided to let her. She was the first person he had been able to talk to about the mess he was in and the first person that would listen; surprisingly not thinking he was a jackass for it, rather the complete opposite. Someone who was outside of the mess, an unbiased mind… He looked over to her, seeing that she was back in the same position she had been and it became apparent to him that she must have been exhausted, but he still had one more thing to talk to her about. It may not have come at the best time, but he needed to say it; before he over-thought it and talked himself out of telling her.

"I went to go see your friends, Charity and Marc the other night." He said quietly after a moment. He Instantly felt and heard her rustle next to him as far as the baneful restraints would allow so that she faced him.

"Are they all right??"

He sighed. _'Just say it already…_' He thought to himself. It wouldn't be easy, but he pressed onward.

"They aren't… sick, or hurt, or in bad shape or anything like that…they're worried about you. But uh…"

"Draco…"

"Charity… She's pregnant. About three months now." He couldn't force himself to look over at Jade, but he could see out of the corner of his eyes that her face had blanked. She was still for quite some time and he thought for a second that she might faint. He jumped slightly when he heard her speak again.

"This… this _is_ Marc's child… right?" She questioned, evidently nervous. Draco did not have to press upon this question— he knew precisely what she meant.

"Yes, it's his. Nothing like that."

Jade seemed only slightly relieved. After quite a while, Draco was sure that Jade had nothing else to say and so he made to stand up to leave.

"Wait."

He settled back again, confused, and glanced back over to her. Her eyes were still down, staring at the floor, but he could tell that she was thinking.

"Yeah?" He questioned. Jade looked up and over at him slowly. Her face was sincere and it made him slightly nervous.

"Draco… I need you to help me get them out of this place."


	8. Ready

A/n: Lollll. I just found out that Tom Felton is dating a girl named Jade. Life is funny.

Draco turned and looked at her with widened eyes. Had he heard her correctly?

"Wha—what??"

Jade's expression told him that she was quite serious, but also that she was desperate for help.

"Please. Draco, I promise I'll come up with everything, just… Just give me a few days." Her thoughts were not in order and she took a moment to draw in a breath of the stone cold air to collect herself. Draco continued to stare, mouth slightly agape, but when she looked back up at him her brown eyes held something that made his disbelief soften into something foreign to him. "If they stay here, the moment she starts to show they'll kill Charity _and_ the baby. And that will be soon if she's three months pregnant now. If only Charity escapes, then not only will the child grow up without a father but Marc will die here, whether it's by these monsters or because he couldn't handle it like Mayor Kelly. You've no clue of how much they mean to each other." With this, it was that the scratching in her throat caused her to end her speech.

Draco sighed to himself. He didn't doubt the closeness of Jade's friends for a second, though he had seen very little of them. Jade had made quite a few valid points. He couldn't let their child die at the hands of those who he was now so strongly against—but this brought up yet another thought. How long was he going to sneak around in secret and loathe in hiding? Jade may be right—what happened _to_ him was _up _to him, and he knew that if he didn't do anything about it, things would go straight to hell. He sighed quietly again, his eyes attentive as he answered her with a ghost of a smile.

"How long do you need?"

She looked up at him and for the first time, Draco caught a glimmer of happiness in the girl's eyes. There was also a glimmer of mischief that nearly never went away when she smiled; he saw that she had known that he would help.

"Give me two days." Jade said with a slight smirk, but her face then fell serious again as he began to leave again, "Draco... Thank you, so much." He carefully cut her off.

"Don't worry about it. I should be thanking you more anyways." He said and only smirked when she appeared confused, but spoke up again before she could ask, "Two days it is." And with a polite nod, he turned and left the dungeons, feeling suddenly bolder.

-

Two full days did not pass quickly enough for Draco, if they did not prove to be the two longest days of his life. He wondered if he had given Jade enough time to think. He wanted Charity, Marc and their child out of Hogwarts just as much as she did, though it was personal to Draco in a different way. But he had to wonder what on _Earth_ she would come up with down there.

After dinner he pushed himself away from the table and stalked out of the Great Hall, ignoring the confused glances between Crabbe and Goyle. Quickly looking up at the staff table, Draco looked at Talcizar who was happily conversing with Snape; Snape, who had moved up in rank since the year before and now sat directly next to the headmaster, 'Hm,' Draco thought curtly, 'I wonder how _that_ happened.' And with a bitter roll of his eyes, he slipped past them and out the door.

"Where does he get to..? No one uses the bathroom _that_ much." Harry said somewhat to himself. Hermione looked over to him and sighed.

"Harry, why the sudden interest in Malfoy? We've never cared what he did before—He's a slightly glorified douche-bag." This sudden change in her language made Ron on the other side of her begin to choke a little bit, and she roughly knocked him on the back with her fist to stop it, "Oh, get over it."

"But there's just something _different_ about him this year. I can't place it. He's acting odd."

"Just ignore him. You've done it for five good years; It's a shame to start paying him mind now."

Harry nodded absently and shrugged. Why _was_ he paying so much attention to Malfoy? He'd have to follow him at some point, but not now. He had to be up to something—Harry knew it, and it went against his better judgment to ignore something like this.

-

"My _God_, you're precise, aren't you?"

Draco heard Jade's low voice before he even came to the outside of her cell, and he entered with a smirk, wincing slightly when it slammed closed behind him.

"How'd you know it was me?" He questioned, sitting next to the girl's sleepy form against the wall. She smirked at him in return and leaned her head back, shutting her eyes.

"You know as well as I do that only two people come down here, and after hearing both of your footsteps, I can hear quite a contrast in their purpose." Though her tone was jesting, he knew enough about this girl to tell from her voice that her bitterness would never cease, and he was glad; he wanted all the bitterness and hatred towards Snape and Talcizar that could possibly be mustered to linger forever.

"I suppose so… So. I hear that you've got some kind of news for me?" He asked with a smile, attempting to keep up the light in the dreary surroundings. It worked, and she shifted to face him beneath the thick chain about her waist.

"I do. And I'm hoping that what I've come up with won't take up too much of your time. Nothing you need to do is too risky, I don't want you getting in any kind of trouble on our account, but all right…" she began with a sigh, "You've got to pretend to like this man only for a while, I promise," she added with a smirk, "You're to wait with him upstairs after everyone else has gone off to bed. Between 1 and 2 in the morning; that's right before he comes down to…take care of himself. You must have quite a clock up there, I get to hear it all the way down here _all bloody night_…"

A smile began to creep across Draco's face as he watched her speak. Her breaths were careful, and he could see the frustration in her furrowed eyebrows as her raw throat hindered her speech. But she kept going. She kept going, and in her face he could see how hard she had thought about this; he could see her passion to fight them, Snape and Talcizar, to spring her friends from their prison. It was awe-inspiring to him. He had never witnessed the Dark Side be defeated in its ambitions, but it was time for that to turn. Jade was showing him the zeal of a witch, despite her past several months and perhaps, as a result of her past few months , and he liked it.

"…Make like you're cheerful, friendly, anything to hide what's going on," Jade continued, dragging the chains attached to her wrists across the floor loudly as she lifted her hands briefly to messily shove her brown hair back and out of her face, "I'm going to be down here making as much noise as humanly possible." She look at Draco, who had sprung up a pale eyebrow, lost. "I'm going to pretend like I've begun to lose it, too, the same way Mr. Kelly did. That… pencil-dicked little prick will come down here and find one of his glorious ways to shut me up. With all of that, I will be able to keep him distracted for at least twenty minutes. While he's down here, though, you've got to go to where they're keeping Marc and Charity and get them out of those god-forsaken chains. Then, make sure there's a back or side exit that nobody is guarding or watching and go back and get them. They won't give you any problems, I can guarantee you. I saw a few rowboats near that lake when they brought us in a few months back… they'll be able to get across the corner of it and over to where that mountain-ridge starts, and from there they'll be fine as long as they've got each other—Marc will make sure of it. But Draco, if you can get them _that_ far we'll all be grateful for the rest of our lives."

He was quiet for a moment, slightly overwhelmed by how much thought she had put into this.

"You remember that much of what you saw outside of this place?"

"You remember a lot about the last things you think you'll see," her voice was quiet, her tone softer and she smirked slightly, almost embarrassed.

There was another brief moment of silence in which Draco allowed everything Jade told him to sink in and considered each part of it carefully. He looked at her, really looked at her closely for the first time. He had only caught a brief glimpse of her the night that she was kidnapped, but compared to then she had changed considerably. Her skin had paled from months without daylight; she was only two or three inches shorter than his six-feet, but her height made the drastic amount of weight that had come off of her body look even more obvious. She looked perpetually tired—and who wouldn't, being used as she was? But there was something more. Jade had begun to look sick; she trembled a lot and her voice was raspier now. Draco had no idea what kinds of spells that Snape had been using on her, but he did know that charms meant to inflict any kind of harm didn't take well when left to wear off on their own without magical assistance; they crept into the body and lingered, staying there and getting increasingly difficult to remove. Apart from her appearance, there was something behind her expression. No matter how reassuring she wanted to sound, now, something in her voice had changed. She sounded beaten, but continued to push.

"I'll do it, Jade… but when I'm upstairs, what about what Snape is going to be doing to you down—"

"I'm not afraid of him anymore, Draco. I _hate_ him, but I'm not afraid of him. I'll be fine, don't worry." It was then that the loud clanging of iron was heard, followed by two unwanted familiar voices that were coming quickly towards them—Snape and Raiken Talcizar, "Uh oh." Draco's eyes grew wide.

"What?! No… no 'uh-oh', they can't come down here. How am I supposed to get out without them seeing me?! _Fuck_."

There was a moment of trepidation before Jade's face blanked into a smile.

"Exactly. I've got it. Get me out of these." She lifted her arms weakly gesturing to her chains. He raised an eyebrow of slightly nervous curiosity, but quickly lifted his wand and unlocked the binds holding the girl to the wall. She shakily stood up and tugged on his robes for him to get up as well.

"What are you doing?" He asked as she tiredly stood against the wall and pulled him by his arm up to her, and the next thing he knew, the hand that she was still in possession of was then pulling her own leg up to rest on his hip, "Jade what the—"

"Start moving."

"_Pardon_ me?!"

"Well, I'd pretend to be snogging you, but my mobility has become quite limited over the past few months." Shocked, but not knowing what else to do, he obeyed. "He'll be furious that I'm not trying to rip _you_ to shreds. Shame for him, really..." She muttered smugly, attempting to adjust her leg. It was then that she looked up at his shocked, blushing expression and felt a small pang of guilt. "I'm sorry… but it's better that they see what they're expecting to see, for your sake."

"Valid point."

"Just… _pretend_ you're having fun? I swear, I'm probably corrupting you."

"Trust me, according to this entire society if they had any idea what I was up to, I'm _already_ corrupt."

"Another valid point." She replied nodding slightly, putting her hands on his shoulders and slouching tiredly between Draco and the wall, unenthusiastically awaiting the arrival of the still approaching footsteps.

Draco held his breath. Their voices were now quite close and he could hear as Snape cheerily told Talcizar to wait only a few yards away while he 'went to check', and Draco could now hear him approaching.

'This is it...' Draco thought. He could practically hear the man breathing outside of the bars behind them and for a second he was sure that Snape had figured out that they were faking. But after a second, Draco heard him chuckle and with a swish of his robes, his footsteps were heard returning to Talcizar, merrily murmuring something about "already occupied" which made Draco want to vomit. Their voices got father away until they were gone and Draco carefully let Jade's leg down and helped her sit back down again and joined her.

"I'm _so_ sorry about that, Draco, I will never make you do anything like that again. You have my word—"

"No, it's all right. Technically, it was a great idea."

"Hm… Well, thanks," She said with a slight smirk, looking over at him. It was then that her face fell slightly, "Are you okay?"

"…What do you mean?"

"I don't know, you just seem exhausted. You need sleep—we can worry about getting Marc and Charity out another night."

"Ah. I know I do, but it's much harder than it sounds, believe me. Are you sure..?"

"Absolutely. I can't have you getting sick from being down here _and_ from lack of sleep, you'll keel over you will. You're no good to me dead, anyways," She chuckled slightly and her face brightened a bit when she saw Draco smile as well. "Besides, unfortunately, they'll still be there. Now, put these things back on me and go get some sleep… Okay?" She smiled at him a little and shifted slightly turning to face him a bit more.

"Ahh… Jade, I really don't want to." He said, reluctantly picking up the irons and chains next to them.

"It'll be okay." She replied and very surely, she slowly held out her arms. Draco glanced at her wrists which were still ripped up with old scars and fresh wounds and only felt more unsettled. With an unwilling sigh, Draco began the unnerving task of replacing the irons back on her wrists and ankles and then proceeded to lock each of the rest of the chains about her that bound her to the wall. He finally stood up.

"Tomorrow night, I'm going to go get your friends out of here. Be ready." He said steadily, and after she nodded he turned and was gone.


	9. Escape

Strangely enough for Draco, he did manage to sleep better that night. He felt different; better, but for the moment he had something important to focus on.

However, the pleasant feeling that sleeping through the night had provided only lasted so long and when he awoke the next morning he was snapped back into reality. Later that very night, he would be doing one of the most risky things he had ever done—and he didn't care anymore.

That day in Potions, Draco put forth the effort to act especially spry. Snape did not suspect anything, if in fact he didn't send hints Draco's way during class as to the events he "witnessed" in the dungeon the night before. And just as Draco expected he would, Snape approached him at the end of the class. Draco arranged to meet with him later that night to have a nice chat about presumably, his progression as a Death Eater.

Yeah, it would be _really_ nice.

_'Sick fuck…_' Draco thought as he turned tossed Snape a grin and left the classroom, the smile slipping to a smirk the moment he hit the corridor.

-

He sat later that night in the Slytherin common room, reading leisurely propped up on the black leather couch and smirking with anticipation as he waited for 1am to roll around. Nearly sooner than he expected, the grandfather clock in the front of the drab room struck and Draco closed his book. With a quick bracing sigh, he stood and stretched his limbs. He crossed the room to the common room door and caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror, and a smile stretched across his face before heading up the steps and out the door, beginning another trip downstairs to Snape's office—but this time, the trip would be worth it. That, he would make sure of.

"'Ello, Professor Snape." Draco forced an excited smile as he entered the room directly above the dungeons that he had become so familiar with over the past several weeks. Severus Snape turned around to face him from where stood arranging a stack of books onto a shelf towards the back of the room and grinned, walking over and giving him a pat on the shoulder. His touch made Draco's blood turn to ice.

"Draco! Doing well, are you?"

"Yes, sir; quite. And yourself, how've you been? Better lately, I hope." Draco questioned as they both took seats in overstuffed blood-red velvet chairs. He surprised himself: he had become quite good at lying to this man—a trait that he did not mind possessing.

"Decently, son, decently. Still with Talcizar fighting tooth and nail to get McGonagall… _finished_, if you follow. That woman's a brooding, meddlesome burden to nearly every single one of our efforts."

"Have you gotten close to a breaking her, sir? It shouldn't be too hard, you've broken down the others." This wasn't so bad; he only had to keep the conversation going long _enough_, until he heard some kind of clamor that Jade would be making downstairs.

"We think so, but we'll have to wait until the next ministry educational-system meeting. I swear, that old cow finds a way to put a damper on everything. Fucking Gryffindors, I've always said."

"I know where you're coming from entirely, sir." This, Draco thought with a smirk, was a small bit of truth. Though he didn't know very many Gryffindors, let alone know them very _well_, he wasn't impressed with what he had seen thus far. Snape chuckled a bit and leaned back in his chair.

"I don't doubt it, son. I don't doubt it… You impress me with your progress more and more every day. 'Have a good time last night, did you?"

"I would say so." Draco's smirk grew with a deviousness that Snape took one way, while Draco took it in quite another.

"You're lucky she doesn't try to rip _you_ to shreds!" He snickered, and even Draco let out a short chuckle—those had been the same exact words that Jade had used the night before, "She's quite a little bitch, look what she's _done_… I can't believe she hasn't put marks all over _you_ yet." He muttered in frustration, and Draco watched him briefly push his sleeves up exposing the healing, but still red scratches.

"Hm. Really sir, it gets _that_ bad? " 'Good God…' Draco thought, forcing a look of curiosity onto his face. Pretending to be interested was easier than he originally thought coming into the whole thing; it simply involved asking a lot of questions, and Draco could certainly ask questions.

"Indeed! Honestly, it takes more energy to _still_ her than it takes to fuck the girl, and she's worn out quite a bit since the beginning." Draco fists clenched hard and more than he ever had before he had the urge to murder Snape. The only thing that stopped him was the sudden erruption of screaming, wailing and repeated slamming of a heavy, blunt metal clanging against itself—it was Jade, "Good _God_, when will she learn?!" Snape angrily rose from his chair and grabbed his wand from his desk, "I'm sorry, Draco, I've got to go put an end to that before anyone hears it."

"It's no problem, sir," Draco replied, rising from his own chair as well and with an acknowledging nod, Snape turned and left the room. "No problem at all." After waiting a few moments until Snape was out of sight behind the door, Draco stepped out and hurried off in the other direction, remembering Jade's instructions.

Within another minute Draco reached the locked kitchen entrance—luckily having not seen anyone in his travels—and unlocked it, pushing it open without hesitation.

Just as he suspected, there were Marc and Charity still bound to the wall with chains, but in a less extreme form than Jade was. He had no time to think about that, though—there was a more important task at hand. Ignoring their stunned expressions, Draco hurried over to them and unlocked each of their binds as quickly as possible and helped them to stand up.

"You again… What's going on?" Charity questioned nervously, taking a small step closer to her husband.

"Jade's come up with a plan to get the both of you, and your child, out of here. I intend to make sure her plan is carried out." He said quickly, his gray eyes darting around instinctively, "But just for a moment, you've got to _wait here_. Do _not run_, I promise, neither of you are in any danger with me. Just wait here, I'll be right back." And with a last firm glance at their stunned, confused faces, he turned and rushed back out of the kitchens and began another careful trek off to a door that he knew nobody used; the one that led out to a dark back trail to the lake that the students came across every September.

When he reached the final leg of the hall leading to the door, Draco took a quick survey of the area to make sure that no one was near it and then hastily made his way back to the kitchens. Thankfully for him, Marc and Charity still stood uneasily together in the center of the kitchen, but aside from this he was glad that they trusted him even _that_ much to not try to run for it without him. Relaxing his shoulders a bit he approached them.

"No matter what you see, you'll have to be absolutely silent. Follow me." He said quietly, still catching his breath. The two of them exchanged a glance before looking back at the silver haired boy and nodded. Nodding back, Draco turned and they made their way out of the kitchen, and began on the riskiest stunt he had pulled yet.

Seconds seemed like hours as Draco led the young couple down the dark staircases and long corridors, constantly stopping at corners and between statues to briefly check for any sign of life. It was then that Draco caught not a sign of life—but rather, death.

The Hufflepuff house ghost was floating idly down the hallway perpendicular to the one that led to the door—their exit route. Draco gestured for them to be as quiet as humanly possible, and when the two of them saw a ghost floating before them, they held their breath. The transparent figure passed endlessly slow, and once he glided past where they were huddled Draco peered around the corner just in time to see him disappear into the adjacent wall. With a motion of his hand, Draco led them down the final stretch of hallway until they reached the door. When he opened it, it creaked horribly and he half expected the entire school to wake up, but shook it off quickly letting them out, stepping out behind them as well.

"All right," He began, flicking his eyes back inside briefly, "From here you follow this dirt path down that way until you see water. Run, be as fast and as quiet as you can, there's no time to lose. There will be at least one rowboat there—take it, and get across to where the lake curves off on the right, there. Move along the coastline in the brush until you get to the foot of that mountain; there's a cave that runs straight through to the other side. Once you get through it, it's no longer our territory and they won't be able to find you easily. Be fast, and please, no matter what you see out there, _don't_ stop, and believe me some things may make you want to stop. Some things may scare you. There's a small town about five kilometers straight on from there. Go there for now and get someplace safe as soon as you can."

Marc looked at him with a somewhat blank expression.

"What… why are you _doing_ this for us…?"

Draco sighed, "I can't let either of you or your child die. You're starting to show, Charity, and the minute they see it they will kill you. You need to get out of this place, now." Draco noticed that Charity's eyes were once more rimmed with tears.

"What about Jade? Isn't she coming..?"

A surge of guilt so strong washed over Draco at that instant that he nearly fell over. All he could do was shut his gray eyes and very slowly shake his head.

"Go now… You don't have a lot of time." He couldn't look at either of them, and thanked God it was dark. Both Marc and Charity's faces held indescribable pain, but knowing that he was right they turned to leave.

"Thank you…" This was the last thing he heard Charity whisper before she and Marc hurried off down the way he had directed them, disappearing into the darkness.

Draco returned inside and shut the creaky door behind him. Allowing himself to walk just so far, he collapsed into a sitting position upon the bottom few steps of the very same stairway he had led Marc and Charity down just a few minutes prior.

And then he waited. Five minutes—nothing. Twenty minutes—Still nothing. Half an hour, and then an hour passed and still nothing. He had succeeded; they had gotten away. Draco's stomach continued to sink from the question about Jade, and the unfortunate answer he had had to give. But this reminded him: she would be wanting to know what happened, and Snape would have been gone from her cell for at least twenty minutes now. Wearily pulling himself up, he trudged off in the direction of the dungeons, a ghost of a triumphant smile on his face.

The very moment Draco began the descent down the stone spiral staircase he felt that something was very wrong. Trying to shake it off with the thought of the good news he had, he continued down and on his way to Jade's cell.

When he reached it the faint smile instantly melted from his face and he stopped dead in his tracks.


	10. The Last Stretch

Draco sent the door flying open as soon as he unlocked it and stumbled inside. He merely stood still and silent for a moment, paralyzed.

What had he _done_?!

He staggered the rest of the way to the back of the cell to where he saw Jade, however, this time she was not in her usual position sitting up against the back wall waiting for him. Instead, he found her laying quite still on the floor with her back to him, but this didn't look like sleep to him. He carefully set himself down as well; his hands shook slightly and he cautiously began to nudge her and pull her over onto her back at the same time.

"Jade…?"

His body filled with rage that boiled in his chest. For a moment he thought that she may be dead, until he saw the weakly erratic rise and fall of her chest. He knew next to nothing about medicine, but he could see that as she tried to breathe, something prevented her from taking a full breath.

Snape had shown zero mercy; the girl was covered in external wounds, but god only knew what kinds of _internal_ damage he'd caused. The only mild comfort in it for Draco was that it meant she had fought him with every ounce of power she possessed. Nervous now, he gently propped up her upper body into his lap and prodded softly around her neck for a pulse, feeling only slightly relieved when he found one. Draco had never realized how cold her skin was. It was freezing in the dungeons, though his school robes blocked out most of the chill. He could only guess what it felt like to be exposed to it twenty-four hours a day in nothing but jeans and a sleeveless shirt.

"Jade?"

This time he got a limp groan and felt a twitch of movement and let out a sigh of relief. She'd responded. And then he realized something strange—this was the first time he had ever really been worried about _anything_, let alone another person.

It took a few moments but there Draco sat, trying to bring her to until her eyes dizzily opened and still another until she was able to realize that he was even there. He heard her mumble something under her breath.

"What…?" He asked quietly. She eyes shut again in slight frustration, but she spoke again.

"Are they okay?"

He winced. She sounded miserable, but at least she was able to recall what was supposed to happen. He smirked a little.

"They're fine—they've been gone for a little over an hour, they're clear."

The corners of her mouth spread into a slow, but very pleased smile.

"Thank you." She was quiet after that, shutting her eyes again. Draco's face fell slightly and his gray eyes flicked down at her.

"Jade…? Are you okay…?" _'Stupid question, Malfoy.'_

"I'll be fine soon. Just tired."

Draco did not buy it; she was only saying it to put his nerves at ease. Needless to say, it did not work and he affirmed it when she pushed herself from his legs to lean against the wall and did a miserable job at hiding a grimace of pain.

"This is bad, Jade…"

To this, half of her mouth twitched into a smirk and she gave a single shake of her head.

"Don't be stupid. It's no worse than it's ever been. You should go. It's late."

"I don't know. I really shouldn't just… _leave_ you like this..."

"You can't stay down here. I'm not _going_ anywhere. I'll be here if you come back," She shifted very slightly and let her head fall back against the stone wall behind her gently. Her brown eyes began to close but, opened briefly again and focused in on Draco's, "Thank you so much, Draco." And with that, whether she passed out or fell asleep Draco could not tell, but neither did he necessarily _like_. He carefully moved the rest of her body that he had leaned on his legs back onto the floor and sat there, placing his head in his palms.

It had started out as a good, selfless plan. He knew that it would involve some things that he didn't think were right, but he didn't think that things would go quite this far. Why did he let this _happen_ to her? He knew _well_ what Snape was capable of, how short his temper was, and who was at the receiving end of his temper, and he had agreed despite all of this. Draco was worried. Whether he realized it or not before did not matter—He and Jade had become friends.

He lifted his head slightly and looked down at her and felt indescribable fury flood his chest, making his hands burn and his head spin: the bruises on the front of Jade's neck from Snape's thumbs overlapped into a perfect V. She had been branded twice, now.

With an angry sigh, Draco rose from the floor and reluctantly left the cell, leaving Jade behind.

-

That night was quite possibly the worst night he had ever been through. He could not even think of falling asleep; it took more energy than he had to climb up the stairs to even get into bed.

When would all of this _stop_? He wanted to help, but what could he do? At the moment, he couldn't even think straight and he barely had a grasp on where he was—any idea that popped into his head was bound to be absolutely absurd, and doing something sketchy and reckless would do nothing but get him, and more so Jade, into an even bigger hole than the one they were in now. It was a nightmare, and he wasn't even lucky enough to be asleep.

-

After the first twenty minutes of his first class the next day, Draco's professor sent him to the hospital wing, saying that the boy was indescribably ill. This, to Draco, was a crock. Physically sick, no, but currently in his mind… well, he didn't know what he was, though "indescribably ill" was probably close to whatever it was.

Madame Pomfrey immediately gave him some sort of foul-tasting elixir, which caused him to fall into a dreamless state of slumber, something that had grown foreign to him as of late. When he awoke he found that several hours had passed, and for the first time in a long time he felt rested. The sleet outside continued to fall from the dreary December sky, which made him wonder about how far Marc and Charity were by now. They should be in town by now, or at the very least getting close—Which then made him think about how much of an uproar Snape and Talcizar were in at that very moment, having to have been aware of their absence for a few hours now.

He smirked. They deserved every bit of drama that they were experiencing and undoubtedly more. Sitting up in the bed, Draco wiped his hands down his face and stood, groggily looking around for wherever the nurse had put his belongings.

"Where do you think you're going, Mr. Malfoy?" Madame Pomfrey asked from the other side of the room where her short figure stood, busily folding piles of white sheets. He looked over at her inquisitively.

"I'm leaving."

"Of course you're not! I'm afraid you'll be spending the night here, dear. Back in bed with you," She said, hastily ushering him back to the bed that he had just left. Draco was dumbstruck—spending the night in the hospital wing? And _tonight_ of all nights? He had no clue what state Jade would be in by now, and his insomnia-induced paranoia was beginning to spout out worst case scenarios. His head gave a sudden unfortunate pound as he slumped back down in the bed. He had to do something, but what? And how?

He looked out the window once more and growled in sheer anger and frustration. Winter holiday was coming in a little under a week—the time in which everyone went home to their families; the time in which his family was expecting to see him home, at the Malfoy manor—the last place and people he wanted to see.

-

The night passed painstakingly slow, and it was now nearly midnight. Madame Pomfrey had been around about half an hour before to check on him, and he had pretended to be asleep. Seeing that he was fine, she left for bed and Draco was finally alone.

'_It's about damned time…_' He thought to himself as he wrenched the covers away from his body and got out of bed once more. As a second thought, he pulled a blanket off of the bed as well and haphazardly tucked it under his arm. As quietly as possible, he left the hospital wing and made the familiar trek across the school.

Once more Draco found himself plodding down the cold stone staircase, the echo of each of his own footsteps reminding him of the hell he was in. Dazedly shuffling the rest of the way across the large dungeon, he shifted the blanket under his arm to lift his wand and unlocked the door to Jade's cell.

Upon entering, the dim torches ignited and Draco's mood did not improve much. Jade was asleep in almost the same position he had left her in and from what he could see in the dimness of the light, the time had only allowed the bruises and whip-like welts and gashes on her body to become more pronounced. From the way she was slumped and breathing, Draco confirmed his suspicion that she had chest injuries—more than likely a broken rib.

He furrowed his eyebrows together in frustration; he'd remembered when one of his ribs snapped in a Quidditch fall the previous year. The pain had made every movement unbearable, and he'd only had to deal with it for a few hours before that horrid potion fixed it. He felt helpless; he was useless when it came to medical spells and charms and he'd probably kill her in the process of trying to help. Sighing, he took his usual position on the floor with his back to the wall and his legs crossed, but this time something in him made him do something different. Carefully turning to his side, he slipped one of his arms under Jade's knees and the other across the back of her shoulders and lifted her a little, bringing her closer and propped her up in his lap, draping the blanket over her. He smirked sadly as her head drooped forward and rolled against his shoulder; like a ragdoll's. She must have felt some part of this, and her eyes slid open into a mild squint and he felt her body tense hard, startled, and then relax slowly when she picked up her head.

"Draco…?"

"Yeah, it's me." He said with a weak smile. She still sounded terrible, if not worse than yesterday and his guilt grew so strong it made him queasy; her left cheekbone was swollen and gray, a small cut on the outer curve of it—injuries that he had not yet been able to see the night before.

"What the hell… are you _doing_?"

"I'm staying with you for a while."

"You don't have to do that." She felt terrible; guilty. She knew that Draco felt responsible for Snape's most recent violent, very angry assault, but he had no reason to and that only made her feel worse. It wasn't his fault. Now he was going to spend more time in the freezing, damp cell because he felt responsible, because of her.

This time, Draco had to strain to hear her but even when he did he was silent for a moment afterwards.

"I want to. Try to get back to sleep."

"I'm fine, though. You're gonna get sick down h—"

"Don't." He cut her off gently, his voice quiet, "Go back to sleep." After a brief moment of staring up at him, puzzled, she reluctantly obeyed and almost instantly she fell still against his lap again. He sighed and shut his own eyes.

Granger was right. This was quite possibly Jade's last stretch as much as he hated to admit it, and he felt like there was nothing he could do but sit there and wait for the worst to come. This was the _last_ thing he wanted to do. Sure, he had watched Crabbe and Goyle beat up countless people in the past six years, but this was the first time that one of his friends was the one who had taken the abuse. This was far more severe than any of the kids in the past who had been knocked over the head for some pocket change or test answers. This was torture.

He looked down at Jade, and shut his own eyes. He had to do something, and whatever he did had to happen before it was too late.


	11. Lost Control

A/n: Oh my gosh, I had forgotten how warm and fuzzy reviews make me feel. I know there were only 2 of you who left them, but thank you both so much! It really means a lot and made my face light up when I opened my ff traffic and saw these! Thank you =)

**--**

What only felt like seconds of sleep to Draco must have been a few hours, and he awoke to a gentle tugging on his arm. His eyes slid open lazily and he looked down to see that it was Jade, already reluctantly awake, and now wearily trying to writhe the blanket off of herself and up to Draco.

"What's the matter?" He asked, yawning and allowing his eyes to adjust to the dim lighting.

"You've got to go. Before_ he_ comes." Jade replied, disgusted. Her sentences had been so choppy, and he hated to keep forcing her to speak, but…

"How do you know he's coming?"

"'Always wake up… right before he comes." She took another breath inward before Draco sighed and reached down to take the blanket that she had pushed up to him.

"Really…? I mean, I could fake something, again, I guess."

She gave him the ghost of her devious smirk, staring emptily off at a spot across from her.

"I gave you my word. I will keep it. 'Never make you do that again. Still sorry for the first time." And with that, she managed to bite her tongue and sank her body carefully back down off of his lap to the floor. Unwillingly getting up, he moved around and briefly knelt down in front of her.

"It's okay. I'll be back soon. Jade…? We've got to get you out of here…" He didn't get any response, and swore under his breath when he saw that she was, at this point, dazed in near unconsciousness. Hearing remote footsteps from above him, he stood, turning to leave, "...somehow."

-

Later that day, Draco fell back into his recently well-rehearsed tired slump across the large desk before him with his head tucked into his arms. Though Jade had been correct about Snape's arrival, it had been at about 4:30 in the morning and he wasn't surprised that he couldn't get back to sleep afterwards. Instead, much like he was doing at the moment, he sat in an outright state of indifference. All he wanted was for the end of the day to come and then maybe, he hoped, Jade would be in some state of talking so they could figure out a way of getting her out of that dungeon before something terrible happened—Though, he wasn't sure that pointing out that she was going to _die_ otherwise would be the best way of bringing up the topic, though he had a feeling that she knew already and was keeping it to herself. Not to mention, repeating it to himself over and over gave him a flush of anxiety each time it came.

He had barely even noticed that the rest of his Care of Magical Creatures class had begun to disperse, and he groggily pulled himself up as well. It was then that he felt someone grip his shoulder and firmly turn him around—He found himself facing none other than Harry Potter.

"What do you want, Potter?" He asked with a displeased sigh. Potter's mug was the last thing he wanted to see after only a few hours of sleep.

"You're up to something, Malfoy, I know it. No one else may have noticed, but I have. You're fucking _up_ to something."

"I don't know what the bloody _fuck_ you think you're talking about, or why you think you've got the nerve to touch me…" Draco muttered with his usual sneer, beginning to walk away. He didn't have the patience today, or any day. Harry pursued him.

"You know well what I mean. I see you going off all the time… I don't know where you go, but god knows whatever you're doing is backwards. I know you're a Death Eater now, and all this is probably just to assist your fucking father…"

"What I _do_, and where I _go_ is my business and my business alone, Potter, and you're not one to say what's manipulative and what's not." And with a cold glare, Harry was stunned and silenced, and Draco stalked off.

-

_'Bloody Potter… Fucking half-wit…_' Draco thought half-aloud to himself as he stormed down the dungeon steps. There was something about his meeting with his enemy that kept nagging at him, though, but at the moment and for god knew how long, he was too aggravated to even begin to figure out or care why.

Entering Jade's cell, he once again went back to where she was and he saw that Snape had once more chained the girl to the wall. Why he had decided to do it was beyond Draco—the man must have been blind to the fact that she probably couldn't get as far as the door. With a frustrated sigh, he knelt down and undid each of locks, allowing the heavy binds and chains to fall to the ground with a thud.

"…What's the matter?" Draco first heard her say. He sighed, but gave her a hopeful smile anyway.

"Nothing," He began, "Just ran into a pretentious little prick who thinks he's the world's greatest hero…" Draco muttered, but then settled into a sitting position in front of her and nodded at the chains, "And I'm not putting those back on—he can deal with it." She raised an eyebrow in question, but Draco dismissed it, "How do you feel?"

"Just ducky." She strained with a half-grin in return. He smiled awkwardly as well, but looked down at his hands silently for a moment, his mind screwed up in thought.

"Jade, I've really got to get you out of this place." She raised her eyebrow again.

"No, you don't."

This had not been the reply that Draco had been expecting. What did she _mean_, 'no he didn't'?

"What? But… Yes, I do… I can't just let you stay down here until…" Draco's voice got quiet and he trailed off, his gaze dropping back to the floor. This was precisely where he hadn't wanted the conversation to go. There was moment of quiet and the air hung thick with discomfort, but quietly, Jade's voice came.

"…Until I die." Draco felt his insides turn to ice and drop; he didn't want to hear her say that. Her sentences continued to be choppy and he almost heard her smile weakly, though he couldn't bring himself to look up at her, "Draco, look… I know what's happening. What's going to happen. I knew a long time ago. It's all right."

"No, it's _not_ all right. Marc and Charity both got out safe; if we come up with something then you can leave this place, too."

"You getting them out was…. the most wonderful thing that… _anyone_ has ever done for me. From the start you risked getting into serious trouble… to come down here. I can't tell you how much that means to me, but… at this point, there's no sense in you chancing expulsion…and being disowned or _killed_, by trying to get _me_ up there and past him."

Though there were several short breaks, Draco realized that this was the most she had said at one time in the past three days; but _what_ she was saying wasn't good, and it was not what he had prepared himself to expect from her. She had done just what he dreaded; she had given up.

"I don't care if I'm expelled, Jade! _Or_ disowned by a family that is more than slightly culpable for everything that's happened to you! And I _also_ don't care to watch you die in their captivity, especially after everything you've been through in the past six months! It's… it's not fucking _right_." And for the first time in his entire life, Draco felt himself being to get choked up. He shocked himself, but fought it back. She sighed.

"I didn't expect it to be _right_. Don't let it get to you, Draco—please."

Something in Draco's head snapped, and snapped hard.

"Don't let it get to me? Don't let it _GET to me_?! This is not the first time in our history something like this has happened but I would rather like for it to be the _last_! This is where I come from, Jade; this is my family's work and I can't fucking go along with it, I won't! Maybe I can't stop all of them, but I don't want to sit on my fucking ass and watch when he kills you! And after how fucking _far_ you've pulled through already, I don't want to see you give up, Jade, and I refuse to watch you down die down here!" Draco's voice was loud; much louder than he'd ever been with her or anyone else.

He reared his fist back wildly and slammed it into the stone wall between them, less than a foot from Jade's face. She jumped and fell back a little, pulling herself a few inches away, her eyes wide and glued to the spot where his fist met the wall. A loud crack resonated through the cell and for a second Draco thought it was the sound of every bone in his hand breaking, until he dropped his arm and felt no pain. On the wall in the spot he had hit was a spider-web of cracks, several tiny chunks of stone crumbling from the center down to the floor.

He was angry; almost a year of the pent up resentment he'd felt for his father, the Death Eaters and the entire Dark Side uprising exploded out of him and his voice echoed loudly off of the cold stone walls. His vision was red, clouded, and it took him several moments to calm down. Breathing in deeply he looked up at her again and his face blanked at the sight of her. In her eyes was absolute terror. He had frightened her. He blinked at the cracks in the wall and then at the floor. Frightened her _badly_. Frightened _himself_, even. Her body was frozen, her arm out behind her for support holding her still in the spot a few inches back that she had squirmed to. Something he swore he would never do, he had done.

"Jade, I… I'm _so_ sorry, I got carried away…" His mouth groped for stronger words, but he couldn't wrap his mouth around them. She was silent, unmoving and stared fixedly at his fist, as if expecting it to come her way next. He sighed and lifted his hand and moved it to his side, out of her view, but even the slight movement made her jump almost unnoticeably, "I don't know what got into me. I didn't mean… I didn't mean to scare you. I told you once that I wasn't going to hurt you, and that won't change." He was glad to see her body relax out of the corner of his eyes as he spoke, which remained fixed on the floor. He couldn't stand seeing the terror in her face, knowing that he was the cause of it. She was quiet for a few seconds.

"It's nothing… I don't… I know you aren't like them. Habits die hard, yanno… I-I couldn't help it…" She said with a sad smile, but her face fell again and her eyes drifted away and she went silent.

Draco sat there in silence, hating himself more than he ever thought he could at that moment. That hatred, however, snapped something into place in his head. He wasn't as helpless as he thought. And if he felt this strongly against his family and "friends", he'd rather die opposing them than live to see their madness carried out any further.

He lifted his eyes at her for a few moments until she sensed it and looked back up at him. In the exact instant that their eyes locked, something happened that may not have been so unexpected to Draco. Before he had time to think about it, Draco reached out and gently cupped her face in his hands, hoping not to hurt her and glad when she didn't flinch away. He was quiet for a moment and felt a lop-sided, sincere smile crawl across his face as he watched one corner of her mouth curl into a shy smirk. Without a word, Draco leaned in and very gently began to kiss her, finding himself glad when she didn't protest.

A loud noise from above them caused them to quickly draw apart and once more, Draco cursed under his breath. He quickly pulled himself to his feet and looked down at her sincerely.

"I'm going to think of something, I promise. I'll be back. I'm going to get you out of here." He said in quiet earnest and left, leaving her perplexed, a dazed look on her face. Before he was entirely out of her vision the dizziness that frequented her head returned and shutting her eyes, she once more slumped back to the wall.


	12. Last Resort

*** A/N:** I already uploaded this chapter but I had to reupload it with this note after I did! Oh my GOSH you guys! Wow! I know I'm not exactly getting a resounding number of comments, which is okay and everything, but with the last few chapters I have seen a HUGE spike in this story's reader stats. In just a few days, this generated over 200 views, each chapter's views increasing about the same amount! You may be scoffing at me and saying, _"Pff. Well Kate why the heck does THAT matter to you?"_ Well! Because that means that people are keeping up with the whole story, and not just reading the first chapter or two and then giving up! That means a lot to me, because it means that you like the story enough to keep reading this far, which means I must be doing something right. It's the little things that really make me feel good, and I don't like to badger for reviews or anything (I accept anonymous and registered members of the site), but I did want to just say thanks to all the people who read and enjoy this story enough to keep up with it! It means a lot to me!

-

Draco returned to the boy's dormitory with his mind shooting in a thousand directions.

First and foremost, was about how on _Earth_ he was going to get Jade out of the school and as far away from it as humanly imaginable. He had to, he knew, but he also knew the disappointing fact that he was only one person and no matter how hard he worked, there was only so much that he could do alone. Right now however, there wasn't a soul in the world besides Jade that he actually _trusted_. When he had helped Marc and Charity escape, the circumstances had been drastically simpler—they hadn't been injured in any way physically, they were already upstairs so the chances of being caught in the school weren't as great, and they had had each other to travel with.

But with Jade, things were different. He had no clue of just what the extent of how brutally physically handled that she had been, but Draco did know that from what he could see it didn't look good and he doubted that she could hold herself on her own legs for very long—yet another bruise in any plan he would come up with.

He also knew from his chit-chats with Snape that she was nourished worse than a stray dog; lucky to be fed twice a week, bottled water thrown though the bars of her cell slightly more often than that: the bare minimum to keep her from starving to death. There was absolutely no way that she could travel on her own as Marc and Charity had, so he would go with her. He had no problem leaving Hogwarts for good, but whether or not he'd be able to do it successfully without getting both of them killed immediately was what he worried about. Plus, though the dungeon where she was located was far underground, he would still have to get her upstairs and past Snape's watchful eye in his office, several classrooms and the Great Hall—all of which were places that he could guarantee usually had people in them.

The second thing that had etched its way into his brain was the fact that he had just _kissed_ her. There was just something in his head that had made him do it. Draco didn't regret doing it—he was relieved when she didn't try to pull away, or worse yet, scratch him to shreds like what he saw she'd done to Snape; but in fact kissed him back. However, he couldn't help but feel uneasy. Yes, so, he had enjoyed it, but during one of their very first meetings he promised that he would _never do anything_ to her. Nevertheless, he could not make that change the fact that he cared for her, and that he couldn't leave her to her demise down there.

This led him to develop a desperate, sickening plan. He sighed. This wasn't going to be nearly as easy as he hoped. This wasn't going to be _easy_ at all.

-

Severus Snape gave a final rough yank at the back of the girl's hair, letting up on his painful bruising grip on her breast. He dropped her back to the cold stone floor, leering and muttering obscenities as he adjusted his robes and lifted his wand. A familiar curse escaped his lips and a blood red spark emitted from the tip of the wand and shot forward, hitting Jade square in the stomach and sending an inconceivably painful shock through her body. With a satisfied smirk, he turned and left, his long black robes swaying behind him.

She was dizzy. She was always dizzy—this made her angry, and even more so that it intensified with each passing day. Failing to muster up enough energy or motivation to shout something goading after him, she returned to her usual slump, thankful that the god-awful clouding of her thoughts was beginning to dissipate.

Her thoughts turned to Draco. What had happened a short while ago was the first time she had felt cared for in nearly half a year and frankly, it had felt nice. He had scared her; she had never seen what he was physically capable of until now, but what she had witnessed…

Jade let her eyes cast towards the cracks in the stone wall that Draco had caused. If he had been planning on killing her he would easily have been able to by now, with magic or without. But Jade knew he wasn't a monster.

She thought about what had been said between them. He'd seemed so intent on getting her out, but at this point, Jade could not see the point or the purpose. She had known from her very first day in that dungeon that it would be the last thing she would ever see. Slowly, finally, that time was approaching. This made her even more angry—She _did_ have hope at the beginning, but as time went on, it had slowly diminished to nothing. She had learned that everything was futile. Resisting, struggling, and now trying to come up with a plan to get her out? She hoped that he would change his mind, or at the very least come to his senses. Jade knew that yes, she would probably be killed within the next month at the most; but despite this she could not allow Draco's life to become a living hell for the sole purpose of escaping. It was senseless, and as furious as it made her for admitting, the only thing she could do at this point was take whatever came and wait. It would be over soon, and though this thought filled her with a violent sadness, she knew that after that day came she'd never see Draco again.

-

He didn't want to do this. It was the last thing on his list of things to ever, _ever_ do, but desperate times called for desperate measures, and this was about as desperate as Draco thought he could get.

Draco had devised a plan. A rather complex plan that made him sick to his stomach, but it needed to be done no matter how strongly against parts of it he felt.

The first step in this plan he began the very next morning. Dragging out a quill and taking an unused piece of parchment from the common room table, he sat down a started scribbling out a note to his parents.

_'Dear mum and dad,_

_I know that you were expecting to see me at home in a few days, but I'm sorry to tell you that I cannot come. There are quite a few unfinished projects and essays I've got to do, and all of the materials I would need are here at school. Rather than drag everything home for only one week, I've decided to stay here to keep things simpler. I miss you both very much, and hope to see you soon._

_-Draco'_

He could not sign the note with "love", despite the fact that these people were his parents; despite the fact that 100% of the letter was already a lie. He was not very sure that he _did_ love them anymore, but at the moment he didn't have the heart to tell them that. After giving the letter to an owl he watched it flutter off with dull hopefulness. Now, it was time for step two.

Draco knew that he couldn't go at this alone, though he would if it were a possibility. It would only get Jade killed, and should someone figure out how he felt, he'd be killed as well. There were, of course, several factors that led him to his final reluctant decision. First and foremost, he cared quite a bit for Jade and knowing that she would otherwise die from physical abuse and all of the unpleasant effects of rape and malnutrition wasn't exactly his bowl of cherries, and he wouldn't allow it to happen.

Secondly—there was nobody besides Jade that he currently trusted, so even beginning to think of asking for help was difficult. So, he started narrowing down his choices. It had to be people that he knew were also against the dark side conquest, immediately canceling out every single other Slytherin he knew. Also, whomever it was needed to be counted on to keep things entirely confidential, and not ask any questions that seemed sketchy—someone that he could inform about the situation and not have to worry about them running to Talcizar the first chance they got. And most importantly, somebody who wasn't afraid to risk their life.

He scanned his brain for hours, but he could not get around it. There was only one person that _may_ even help him, and they hadn't been on the best of terms from the beginning. Even if he _was_ willing to help, Draco was still sickeningly unwilling to admit it.

Harry Potter was the only person he could think of and knew that he was _going_ to think of no matter how long he poured over it. This, Draco thought, was going to take a lot of groveling and convincing which was the other part that he loathed passionately, but if that's what it meant then that's what had to be done. This would be the roughest part, but Harry also had another thing that Draco thought may be helpful, though Harry had been quite bad at hiding the fact that he possessed it—an invisibility cloak.

"God won't even be able to save you if you don't do this for me, Potter…" Draco muttered angrily to himself as he made his way down to the Great Hall with the other students for the final lunch before winter recess.


	13. Help Me

A/N: Thank you for helping me pass 1k hits, everyone!

"Is that _Malfoy_…?" Hermione questioned, her fork stopping halfway to her mouth as she looked sideways seeing the familiar blonde-haired boy slowly approaching.

"Wow. Seems like it, though I'm wondering what business he's got over here… The guy hates everyone _at_ this table." Ron replied. Harry stayed silent, not only choosing to ignore Ron's stating the obvious, but the scar on his forehead tingled as he saw that Draco was indeed approaching the table—approaching him, no less; just as Harry had feared. Coming to a stop in behind them, Harry, then the other two turned around to face him.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" Harry questioned, but his tone was not cold and instead held no distinct description at all. He noticed immediately that whatever Draco had come over there for was clearly something that made him uneasy.

"I need a word with you, Potter." Draco said dully after a moment. Harry raised an eyebrow beneath his shaggy bangs.

"You want a word with _me_? Have you got the right person, Malfoy?" He asked with a bit of a chuckle. Draco's face fell dark, but he suppressed the strong urge to say something vulgar and instead briefly shut his eyes to calm himself.

"Yes, Potter, I've got the right person. Now, if you don't mind?"

Harry exchanged a look with Ron and Hermione, but after a brief moment of contemplation he got up and followed Draco out of the Great Hall.

Once on the other side of the door, Draco led him somewhat a few yards down and on the other side of the wide hallway which thankfully, was currently empty.

"All right, you've got me out here. Now, what do you want?"

The next part was the most difficult thing that Draco had ever had to press himself to say, but taking a breath to keep himself under control, he began.

"I need your help."

Harry began laughing.

"Is this some sort of a _joke_? You've had better, Draco." He asked, still chuckling but his smile faded when he saw the seriousness upon Draco's face.

"I know we've never been known to associate with each other before, Potter, and before now I never thought that I would want that to change. Unfortunately, this is quite literally a life or death situation, and I can't go at it by myself. Trust me, I've tried."

"What in the bloody hell are you talking about? Is one of your Riddle-fucking friends in trouble? Because if that's the case, you can go ask anyone else you like for help…"

"Quite the opposite."

"What?" Harry questioned carefully. Draco sighed.

"I don't want to be part of the Dark Side, Potter. I've seen what it's done all of my life and frankly, it's made me miserable that it's been forced on me. This year, though, since they've finally taken over everything…" He trailed off; Harry's face was already skeptical. Draco sighed and forced his next few words through gritted teeth, growing impatient, "Fine then. Let me start at the beginning. Over the summer before school started almost one hundred Death Eaters—my father included, and I won't lie, I _was_ there though I didn't take part in any of it—raided a muggle town an hour outside of London and took seven prisoners. They took the mayor of the town and his family, one married couple and one girl about our age. Long story short, the mayor and his entire family have been killed. Of the three that were left, I managed to get the married couple out of here as they were being kept upstairs in the elf-quarters in the kitchen. The third… well, I've become rather close with her, but she's been kept downstairs in the forbidden dungeons for the past six months and basically… Basically, she's used for rape and more recently as Snape's personal punching bag and practice-target. She's in awful shape, Potter, you've seen me with medical magic—I would _kill_ her trying to reverse Snape's spells. She's going to die very soon if she's left down there, but I've come up with a plan to get her out that I can't carry out on my own. That's where you come in. I do not wish to beg you, Potter, but if that's what it takes then that's what I'll have to do." Draco rushed in an almost-whisper, checking now and then to be sure no one was around.

Harry stood dumbstruck. Had he just heard Draco correctly? He had been speaking rather quickly but Harry had heard every unmistakable word.

"You're… against the Dark Side?"

"Yes."

"…And you're a Malfoy?"

"Yes."

"And now you're telling me, that there's an imprisoned muggle girl down in the dungeon that is going to die if she doesn't escape…"

"Yes." Draco was getting rather irritated, but knew he had to keep himself calm—he couldn't ruin this and though he was angry to admit it, Harry Potter really _did_ have the upper hand this time.

"And you don't want her to die—_you_, of all people, not wanting a _muggle_ to die…" Draco watched a teasing smile of sheer pleasure spread across Harry's face, simply because he knew he control. The little bastard really was having fun with this, Draco thought, but he needed the help desperately, "And _you're_ coming to _me_ for help…because…?"

"Because," Draco began, speaking through his teeth, "no one will expect it. You're also against the uprising. I wouldn't expect you to go jabbering about it to Talcizar. You're a decent wizard—if it comes to a fight you won't be _utterly_ useless. Plus, I thought you were _supposed_ to be a decent human being. One of your best friends is a muggle-born, I figured you'd jump at the chance rather than let someone of the same blood be killed because of it." Draco could play this button-pushing game too; he watched Harry redden slightly.

"I don't wish for _anyone_ to be killed. I'm just curious and a little skeptical… You've always hated me and been against everything I stood for and vice versa. And _now_ you're saying that you've switched sides, and there's some situation that sounds like a complete trap: 'lead me down to the dungeons where no one will look for me', I suppose you'll tell me to leave my wand in my room…"

"Look, Potter. You won't believe me no matter how many times I tell you, but I'm serious. And believe me, you're no good to me unarmed. Bring your wand, bring _seven_ wands for all I fucking care, bring whatever you want. I _have_ a plan, but it would be stupid of me to tell you if you'll run off and tell someone the first chance you get. Just tell me—will you help me, or not?"

"I don't even know what—"

"Please."

"…What…?"

"_Please_. I really…really need your help." Draco's voice was wavering a bit with discomfort and he felt like he were about to scream. Harry was silent for a moment, weighing the sincerity in Draco's voice. After a pause, he spoke.

"Fine, I'll do it. But if this so much as looks like it's going someplace that I don't like—I'm gone."

Draco let out a breath of relief and an exhausted half-smile spread across his face.

"Fair deal." And from there, Draco's voice fell hushed again as he revealed each step of his plan to Harry; the passwords for the doors, where he would meet him the following night, what he should prepare to bring with him, and even the part about Harry's cloak which surprised Harry—He had no clue that anyone but Ron and Hermione knew that he had it. He explained that Talcizar had had the professors hexed into non-resistance. Most importantly, Draco explained that it meant leaving the school—and for good. For some reason, Harry surprised himself by listening carefully. There was something in the far back corners of his mind that told him to believe his enemy.

A few minutes later, they returned to the Great Hall and split ways, going back to their seats at their own house tables.

"What was _that_ all about?" Ron questioned with extreme curiosity, not bothering to swallow his food before he spoke, giving Harry and Hermione a sprits of wet potato-bits.

"Nothing," Harry lied, brushing the food particles off of his shirt. He wasn't quite sure this was the kind of thing he should be talking about let alone dragging more people into, even though he still was not sure he wasn't being lied to.

"Come on now, Harry! You expect me to believe that you had a ten minute conversation with Draco Malfoy about _nothing_? Out with it."

Harry sighed. He knew that if he didn't say something now to hold the two of them over, then a scene would be caused and a whole lot of attention would be focused in their direction.

"He asked me for some help for a friend. I'm going to meet him tomorrow night."

"Harry _Potter_!" Hermione exclaimed in her overly motherly tone, "Have you given thought to the fact that he's probably using you or setting you up for something terrible?!"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, 'Mione, I have. But I've given thought to everything else he's said, too, and I've decided to go anyway. Look, it's too complicated to explain right now…"

"Well, we can't let you go alone. What if he tries something…something _Malfoy-like_ and you get hurt?!"

Harry didn't feel like fighting. Especially over something that he wasn't even sure was true or not. Whatever – if Draco wanted to try anything stupid, then he would get what was coming to him.

Three against one was one hell of a fight.


	14. The Last Descent

Draco skipped dinner that night. He was too wound up to eat, but decided to make full use of his time. After everyone else left the dormitory to go to dinner, Draco put a charm he had learned a while back on his regular school bag which would allow anything and everything to fit inside of it—somewhat of a bottomless pit. This way, he would look less suspicious in his travels. Shoving everything he had brought with him that year and any other item lying around that he thought may be useful into it, he clasped it shut and slung it over his shoulder. Draco didn't even bother to look back in disgust at the room he was seeing for the last time, and headed upstairs for a quick pit-stop and raid of the kitchens.

-

He quickly made his way down the dungeon steps. He hadn't been able to visit Jade the night before and for this he was rather angry with himself, but he had instead managed to convince Harry to come and help him carry out his plan to get her out and as far away from Hogwarts as humanly possible. That was a whole lot more important than his rage.

As he made his way down the long, depressing hallway that led to the end of Jade's cell block, he shivered but felt a slight twinge of relief when he realized that this would be the last time he would ever have to walk this way. Hell, he thought—it was the last time he'd have to be _anywhere_ in the school, and he could honestly not care less. This was the place that had contributed to his year of hell, and he couldn't be gladder to be rid of it.

He found her asleep, still lying on the floor and this time he approached quickly and without hesitation. She did not stir very much when he sat down behind her and very carefully pulled her up across his lap. He then opened his bag and reached down in it, grumbling slightly to himself at the impossibility of finding things in a bottomless pit; finally, he pulled out another blanket which he proceeded to lay over the top of Jade, who shifted so slightly in her sleep that in any other case it would've been no more than a twitch. Now, Draco thought, all there was to do was wait for Potter.

*

Quite a while passed in utter silence and complete lack of motion with the exception of Draco's arm, which was persistently trying to reach a spot on his back that itched terribly. Just when he was about to reach it, he felt something soft but deathly cold gently hold on to his wrist. A tired smile of relief spread across his face when he realized that Jade had woken up.

"Hey," He said quietly, looking down at her, "Ready to get out of here?"

"…_What_? Draco… you _didn't_…"

"Oh, I did. It took a while, but I came up with something. As soon as we get you out of this shithole, you're going to a hospital and then you're going back to your family."

She looked tiredly puzzled.

"…'We'?" She questioned carefully.

"I wouldn't have believed if I hadn't seen it."

Entering the cell now was none other than Harry Potter and to Draco's extreme dismay, he was followed by Ron and Hermione—all of whom were carrying their bags as well.

"I wasn't aware we were turning this into a Broadway production… When I said bring anything you like, I didn't mean _more of you_." Draco said coldly as the three of them hesitantly approached.

"D'you honestly think we'd let Harry come meet _you_ by himself? And in some forbidden dungeon, no less…" Ron questioned with a smirk, as if it were _obvious_.

"Friends of yours?" Jade asked quietly.

"Hardly," Draco breathed with a sigh.

"What have you managed to do this time, Malfoy?" Hermione's voice came next, gesturing at Jade, who then looked back at her with a raised eyebrow. She was about to muster the energy to interject when the dark-haired boy who had been very quiet finally spoke.

"He's done nothing, Hermione."

"What are you talking about!? What's happened to her, then?"

"Yes. It was Draco. You see, he beats me. 'Bit of a rapist, too. He's been trying to kill me for months now, but I can't be defeated. And… I've a name, you know." Jade strained sarcastically, loudly enough for Hermione to hear and when she did her cheeks flushed bright red with embarrassment. Draco chuckled quietly and smiled a little; she had jumped to his defense, even though she had sounded terrible while doing it.

"Granger, Weasley…Potter. This is Jade. And it wasn't me who's done it, it's been Snape and probably Talcizar as well."

"Be nice, Draco… First names…?" He nearly winced at how badly she sounded, but he had to appreciate her effort to speak at all.

"Hermione, Ron and Harry."

She nodded, acknowledging them politely before giving the three of them a brief, tired smile.

"So. What did 'appen, exactly?" Ron began, but when everyone else in the dark cell turned and stared at him in disbelief, he raised an eyebrow, "…what?"

"…Are you joking? I mean…didn't we just…" Draco trailed off, looking at the others who had the same look on their faces.

"Ron… you can be one of the thickest people I've ever known, sometimes…" Hermione said, pressing her fingers to one of her temples and momentarily shutting her eyes.

"What'd I s—"

"Ron I'll _tell you later_, man." Harry hissed, shutting his eyes.

"All right, enough of _that_… Anyway," Draco began, looking at Ron and Hermione, "First of all, you two'll have to decide if you're willing to help us get Jade out of here. Also, decide if you're willing to get into serious trouble if my plan to keep Snape and Talcizar… _still_, until we're long gone, fails. Finally, decide whether or not you want to come back here. If you do, leave now. There's no coming back after this. I can tell you—unless there's some kind of Light Side revolt, it won't get better for a while or at least until we're gone. Most of all, be prepared to risk your lives. I promise I will do everything in my power to keep all of you out of harm's way if it comes, but I can't predict what will happen." He snapped his gaze to the three other teenagers standing still in front of him, quietly murmuring to one another, "So, what'll it be?"

"I already told you, I'll do it," Harry said blankly; he was still stunned. And he was—how could Draco Malfoy, a person whom he had loathed and been so against for six years have such an extreme change of heart? He didn't even think that the guy _had_ a heart—literally. But when Harry thought about it… was it really _that_ sudden? His bitterness and attitude could have easily been a front. It was just all so unexpected.

"I'm in, too. 'Sides, if this is the way that this school's going to be from now on… I'd rather be expelled." Ron replied.

"The teachers are doing a horrendous job as well…" Hermione muttered, disgusted. Harry cut in.

"Hermione—"

"They've been hexed. All of them." Draco said quietly cutting Harry off. Hermione turned and looked at him.

"_What_?!"

Draco sighed. Time was ticking—time that they didn't _have_. All of these things really could be discussed later, but getting into a fight wasn't exactly how he wanted to start this.

"I heard my father talking with another Death Eater over the summer about how the professors would all be under some kind of hex to keep them from resisting or joining together. If they were all mysteriously killed or fired, the rest of the wizard world would know something was wrong. They're trying to hide what they really are, of course, which is why they're so angry that McGonagall's been fighting it so well."

"That's why you said we needed to go to her…" Harry muttered. His scar tingled a little, but he ignored it.

"Yes. She's the only one right now who's got the strength to know what we're talking about, and help us out," Draco looked down at Jade. She was tired just like she'd been for months, and combined with being starved and the injuries she had it wasn't getting any better. He looked up at Harry, Ron and Hermione and for the first time the three of them saw panic, _worry_ even, in their Draco's face; they were slightly taken aback by it, "Please… can we get on with it now?"

After exchanging some hesitant glances, the trio nodded. Draco sighed, relieved, and carefully moved Jade so that he could get out from under her to stand up. When he had, he bent down and pulled Jade up, putting one of her arms over his shoulder to help her walk. It was then that he noticed an awkward silence and realized that Harry, Ron and Hermione were all staring at him.

"Okay, then. Let's get this started."

And finally, after six months, the cell was empty.


	15. Goodbye, and Good Riddance

It only took a brief moment for Draco to prepare himself as he stood outside of Snape's office—acting may not have been his forte, but in this case, there was inspiration enough. Shrugging it off, he fixed a horrified look upon his face and trying not to laugh, he burst through the door—thankfully finding both Snape and Talcizar pouring over documents and chatting quietly across the large desk. They immediately snapped their heads up at the sudden commotion, but Draco found pleasure in the fact that they looked _concerned_.

"Professor Snape!" He exclaimed, forcing a pant and hunching over as if he'd been running, "Professor Talcizar!"

"Draco, what's happened?!" Talcizar questioned, standing up and Snape instantly followed suit. Still pretending to be flustered, Draco pointed down at the floor.

"Down there, she… she's _gone_, you've got to come see immediately!" He was practically screaming. Both older men exchanged glances and reached for their wands, tucking them into their pockets as they moved towards Draco. He hoped that he sounded as nervous as he'd meant to. 'They trust me too much…' Draco thought with a wide mental grin as both of them deserted their places, hurrying over to the door.

"In the dungeons?" Snape questioned hurriedly. Draco nodded, and with that, the two men exchanged what looked to be a developing angry glance with one another and then they were off, leaving Draco behind. Once they were gone he calmly stood upright and as nonchalantly as he came, Draco left the room as well jogging after the two men.

-

Things were going smoothly, to the surprise of the Gryffindors in the dungeon. Harry, Hermione and Ron were awaiting their new headmaster and his newly appointed consultant, but not without some doubt in their minds.

"Harry…" Hermione began, uncertainty clear in her voice as she eyed her bag of belongings in the corner, "Are you sure about all of this?"

"'Mione, I know this is risky, but when you consider some of the other things the three of us have done, this kind of shadows in comparison. What's not to be sure about? I'm not going to say that I wasn't reluctant, and I'm not going to say that I wasn't skeptical. But, I started thinking… Draco can handle himself. He's a stupid chav, but he's a good wizard. He wouldn't go to someone else, especially not me—unless it was something that he was really desperate for. Now that I've seen what's really going on…" He shook his head sadly and stared off blankly at the stairwell, "I knew there was no way that what the uprising was doing could have been _good_, but I didn't know that things would go quite this far. Look at her, Hermione. I don't think she's faking this," Harry explained with a sigh, nodding over at Jade who he could see squirming a little against the wall, trying to sit up straight, and keeping his voice low, "But like he said—you two don't have to stay in this if you really don't feel right."

"I'm staying, Harry, for your sake _and_ hers." She replied; Ron nodded as well.

"Me too. Even if anything happens, mum's reaction can't be half as bad as it was when Fred and George dropped out of school."

Hermione rolled her eyes and sighed, briefly casting her gaze to the girl on the other side of the dungeon passageway. Their thoughts were interrupted by the slamming of the upstairs door against the stone wall as it threw itself open, and the loud stomping of the two men tearing down the stairs—followed not as nervously by another: Draco.

"Ready?" Harry questioned quietly, taking his place by the corner, peering at the cell that Jade had spent the last six months in. Ron and Hermione nodded and took their positions as well, their wands ready in case they were needed as the footsteps became closer and closer until they were just outside the cell.

"What the bloody fuck!? Where's she gone?!" Talcizar was heard, his voice thundering against the walls. Draco's voice came next.

"I don't know! I came down here and when I got here she was already—NOW!"

At that, Harry stepped out from his hiding place and sent his wand arm flying outward.

"_Expelliarmus_!" Harry shouted, disarming both men at the exact moment that Draco sent a green bolt from his wand, feeling so powerful it made his hand tingle. The bolt hit the back wall of the cell and the cell door slammed shut, locking them inside and the chains and locks that once bound Jade to the wall snaked fiercely around the two men, instantly rendering them entirely immobile. With a violent slam into the wall, both men were knocked entirely unconscious, their body's in full bind with the chains around them.

Draco's lips twisted into a satisfied smirk as he watched them finally get what they deserved, "Just for good measure…" He murmured a silencing charm for when they came woke up, and for a brief moment Draco thanked his family for raising him to be sadistic. No one would hear them scream, now. Now they would feel what they'd been doing to Jade. He could not gaze upon the scene for very long though, and he then looked up at the other three who could do nothing but stare back at him, not sure of whether they should let their joy show or not as well.

He hurriedly slipped past them and around the corner to where they had left Jade. Reaching her, he smiled a tired though triumphant grin, glad that a twitch of the same was returned.

"Did you see that?"

"Ohh, yes."

"Good," He grinned again and called out to Harry, "Potter, the cloak."

Harry understood the importance of not wasting any time and so disregarded the demanding undertone in Draco's voice. He hurried over to where he had earlier draped the invisibility cloak over their bags of belongings to conceal them. Picking it up, he returned to where Draco was kneeling and handed it to him. Draco proceeded to tuck it under his shoulder and reaching for his own bag, Draco lifted it over his head and put one of his arms though, strapping it loosely across his chest.

"Jade..? I want you to try really hard to stay awake, okay?" He asked quietly, leaning down slightly to pull her up. She knew that by "awake" he'd meant "conscious," but for once she decided not to be difficult. She nodded firmly to assure him that she could, focusing her eyes to alertness and pushed the overwhelming dizziness away.

Draco smiled a little, bending down a little to slip one arm under her back and another under her knees and slowly lifted the girl up, standing upright again. He cast an anxious look in the trio's direction and Harry, Ron and Hermione retrieved their things as well and followed Draco as he led the way out of the dungeon.

The four walking teenagers finally stopped holding their breath only when they were up the long flight of stairs and down the endlessly long hallway past Snape's office.

Draco put Jade down, but put one of her arms over his neck and supported her waist. Finally he draped the cloak over her, rendering her invisible to the naked eye. Unlike Harry, Hermione and Ron, his face had not relaxed much since they left the dungeon.

"All right," He began, nodding at them, "One of you has to lead the way to McGonagall's office. She's the head of your house, I'm only going to assume that you know."

Hermione stepped in front of the others, sighing quietly.

"I know. Come on."

Stopping at the end of each hallway to check for any sign of life, the moving was slow but Hermione was sure to take the safest possible route and kept everyone absolutely silent. When they reached the door to McGonagall's office everyone stopped moving. Harry turned to Draco, who eyed the door anxiously.

"Now… you're _sure_ that she's been able to fight the hex?" He questioned carefully. Draco sighed.

"Yes. It's probably taken a lot out of her, but if she can at least give us some direction then that's enough for me." He replied tiredly. He wanted to get inside the office so he could stop feeling that they were so exposed. Ron seemed to sense this and knocked on the door without hesitation. After a few moments of waiting, the door opened and they found themselves facing Professor McGonagall. Her expression was tired, but her thin eyebrows rose in shock when she saw four of her students standing at the door.

Without waiting for an invitation, Draco hurried past the surprised woman to the inside of the room. Seeing as Draco had already done so, Minerva stepped aside and the others hurried in just as Draco had seconds earlier.

"What in heaven's name is going on here?!" She began, but halted when she turned back from closing the door to see Draco kneeling near the couch, pulling the invisibility cloak away and revealing a rather battered and disoriented Jade, "Oh…my…" She covered her mouth with her hand in shock, and her words came out as a whisper, "The rumors were true."

Draco arranged Jade into a lying position so across the couch and the older woman hurried over, followed by Harry, Ron and Hermione, "How long has she been down there?"

"Since July." Draco replied, his tone dull with hints of nervousness. He held onto Jade's hands, probably getting more comfort out of it than she was, and very gently shook her trying to keep her awake.

"July?!"

"_Bright_…" Jade mumbled half-awake, squinting dizzily at the new bright surroundings.

"Mr. Potter, turn off the lights on either side of the door, please. Poor thing," Professor McGonagall said quietly, carefully brushing the brown hair away from Jade's forehead, "Sick men, the whole lot of them. Nobody should ever be subject to this kind of madness and cruelty…" Her face then blanked, "Where are they? Severus and Raiken… they'd never let you get past them."

"They trust me. I tricked them into going down to the dungeons and to make a long story short—they're chained and locked in a cell, and they'll be quiet, don't worry..." Draco explained quickly.

"But they're both masters of _countless_ forms of wizardry! They'll be out in minutes!"

"Not," Draco said with a devious smirk, "If they're both _unarmed_." He pulled the two wands out of his back pocket, showing them to her. Her jaw dropped in shock but it was obvious that she shared joy in their victory.

"Yeah. Plus, they'll be out cold for a while." Ron added, unfazed. Professor McGonagall smirked grimly.

"I won't ask, but I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't have done the same."

"We came to you to help us get off the school grounds." Hermione spoke up next, sounding as hopeful as humanly possible.

Professor McGonagall looked up from her gaze upon the young girl lying in front of her to Hermione, Harry, Ron and then Draco; she was shocked to see a pale, pleading look upon his face. He was holding the girl's hand; she understood a bit more now. But she was a muggle, and he was the son of none other than Lucius Malfoy. However, his father probably had no idea that his son was not following in his footsteps. She smirked—it served the man right and served Draco better; she had always had a feeling that there was more to the seemingly heartless boy than he allowed to show through; he just needed time and a push to where it was unfortunately just too far.

"…I can't leave. They'll be even more furious and the backlash will be violent and quick. But, I certainly won't send you off with nothing." The semi-frantic woman rose from her crouching position next to the couch and hustled over to a large bookshelf on the opposite side of the room. The four Hogwarts teens watched her hurriedly scan the shelves, finally finding the book she was looking for. McGonagall pulled it out of the far corner of one of the nearly barren, bottom-most shelves and quickly blew the visible layer of thick gray dust off of it. She began to flip through the pages as she returned to where they younger inhabitants of the room remained.

It may have taken a few moments but McGonagall's face brightened a little, not seeming to care as she ripped several pages out hastily. Her eyes darted back and forth across Harry, Hermione, Draco, and Ron, trying to frantically pick the one she'd have to trust with the information. Potter was prone to losing things, Draco was a bundle of nerves and looked like he hadn't slept in years, Ron was….well, he was Ron; that left her with her most reliable 6th year student—Hermione Granger.

"Ms. Granger," Minerva began, folding the sheets of paper and grabbing a few jars of unknown contents off of the shelves of yet another bookshelf, hurriedly handing then to Hermione, "This is about the extent of what magic can do in favor of muggles after its been used against them like this. It may not help much until she can get to a hospital but it's certainly better than having her continue on in this terrible a condition; the pages are the instructions, each of the jars is labeled," Hermione nodded, accepting the items her teacher was handing to her, "and as for all of you… you've got to get to a safe place as fast as possible. Professor Snape and Professor Talcizar may stay down there for a long time, but Draco…" He looked up at her, "a backlash from your father should be expected when he finds out, and where bad things lurk…you can be sure that 'you-know-who' will follow. And when _he_ finds out that _you're_ involved, Mr. Potter…" Minerva trailed off. Draco exchanged a look with Harry.

"Like I said, Potter. You don't have to do this and if you want out now, I'll understand."

Harry looked at his once sworn enemy and saw nothing but sincerity in his face. He then looked down at Jade, who was now nearly entirely lost to unconsciousness. While he wasn't particularly thrilled about another meeting with Lucius Malfoy let alone Voldemort, he couldn't just let so many things fall apart now. He thought about the terrible death of his parents, which was credited to the Dark Side—they suffered death, and Harry was unable to do anything about it. Neville, too, and Dumbledore. Now Jade was suffering so close to it, and because of this and the added stress of his family's ways, Draco was suffering in some ways as well. Well, Harry thought, now he had to do it. It's what his parents would have done.

"I'll stay. I'm not exactly fond of your dad, Draco—no offense,"

"None taken, trust me…" Draco muttered.

"—But not enough to let him worry me. And Voldemort… He's weak. I don't see him being able to come back on his own just yet. He never brings anyone but himself when he goes out for a fight; it's too personal for him. Now that there are four of us, that'll make our chances a lot better."

The room was quiet for a moment, everyone taking in what Harry had just said. Professor McGonagall spoke finally, breaking the silence.

"Are you sure, Mr. Potter?" She asked. He nodded unflinchingly. She looked to the other teenagers in the room, "All of you… are you _all_ sure?" Carefully each of them nodded as well. Minerva gave a slight nod and was silent for a time, "All right then. Ms. Granger, start those spells and potions I gave you with Jade. We've got to come up with places that you can all go to stay along the way… And I know it isn't exactly the closest town, but if you make for Andalton, you'll be safest there—"

The four students tensed a little. Hogwarts was miles from anything and the town of Andalton was on the far outskirts the city. Their faces all held the same expression—it was a long way for them to go.

Ron's face suddenly relaxed into realization.

"Of course…Andalton is a mostly muggle town!"

"Mostly?" Harry questioned, confused.

"That's where a lot of witch and wizard doctors are stationed. The muggles don't know about them—they work both types of medicine, that's why muggles with magic injuries are sent there sometimes… I don't think we'd ever thought of that!"

The room was quiet for a second and Draco and Harry and even Professor McGonagall eyed him strangely.

"Ron… where the hell did you _learn_ about all of that!?" Harry questioned finally. Ron shrugged.

"I hear my dad talk about stuff that goes on at work."

"Ah-huh..."

"Exactly, Mr. Weasley. There are also many of these doctors in London, but I won't risk sending you there. It's far too dangerous and it's more than likely one of the first places they'll have people looking for you. As for right now, you've got to travel by _night only_, I mean it." She reached up and pulled a rolled up bewitched map of the grounds and anywhere else needed to be seen off of a shelf above her desk, unrolling it on the table, "Tonight, we've got to get you somewhere in…here." She placed her finger past halfway through the Forbidden Forest to a landform that on this map, didn't look to be more than a crawlspace but must have actually been a cave—that happened to be in the most feared area of the Forbidden Forest.

"There...? Are you positive, Professor?" Draco questioned. He was nervous. Being in the school was doing this to him; He was probably the most anxious to leave out of the four students.

"Unfortunately, Mr. Malfoy. I don't plan on sending you all in there unarmed, of course. But this is a place that _no one_ wants to be, including anyone who may want to find you." She picked up a quill and circled the cave, marking it with a Roman numeral one, "After this…well, this is only your first stop."

Though they were working as quickly as possible, they marked their final destination on the map half an hour later. Minerva McGonagall put a password-like charm on the map that Hermione had come up with and was sure that no one would ever be able to guess.

"You've got to make sure that you take care of these and yourselves!" McGonagall said, distributing several different magical materials among the four students. She had given them a crash course "lesson" on the most extreme forms of magical defense, glad that she was dealing with four of her best students but not being able to help being nervous for them. They were still just children, and this girl, Jade… God only knew, her family probably thought she had been killed and if Draco Malfoy hadn't gotten her out when he did—she would have been within the following week.

She looked at Hermione, Ron, Harry, Draco and Jade, who with the temporary help of the spells Hermione had performed on her was able to stand and walk on her own, though seemingly not without some pain. Minerva smiled almost unnoticeably despite the darkness of the situation—he was supporting her, but Minerva feared for the safety of Draco the most; his father was a terribly powerful and ruthless man. When he learned of what Draco was doing… there wasn't a doubt in her mind that he wouldn't hesitate to kill his own son.

"You've got to leave now," She said, glancing up at the cat-eye clock on the wall; it was just past midnight—they'd only have a few hours left to travel and if it started to snow, they'd only be slowed down, "Not another moment to waste." The teens all gave her some semblance of a solemn yet thankful nod and made for the door, "Good luck." She sounded choked up, but she refused to let them see her cry—not now.

The sound of the door closing behind them echoed for what felt like a lifetime.


	16. The Forbidden Forest

"Are we sure that we're going in the right direction?" Hermione questioned, pulling her jacket tighter around her body as the five of them trudged carefully through the Forbidden Forest, "It's _freezing_, and it's supposed to snow this morning…"

Harry lit the tip of his wand dimly and held it up to the map in his hands, allowing him to see the five small dots moving slowly through the woods. He then looked at the circled cave where their destination was—it showed them as being not very far from it at all.

"We're almost there," He pushed his sleeve up and glanced down at his watch. It was 3:30am, "We should be there in about half an hour…" Harry sighed to himself. Things were going just fine now with the exception of them all being cold and tired, but he had a terrible sinking feeling that it wouldn't stay that way—He also had a feeling that Draco knew this, too.

Draco glanced down at her every couple of seconds almost as if to make sure that she was still there. Jade looked positively exhausted from what he could see of her face. He had given her one of his sweatshirts and with the hood up, she was literally buried inside of it. He had his left arm wrapped lightly around her waist to support her, just in case. The spells that Hermione used on her had helped, but they were wearing off now after a few hours. Well, Draco thought, they'd get there soon, and when they did they could _all_ get some rest.

Half an hour seemed to move endlessly, but after a while they all started to wonder—where was the cave? They should have been there by now.

They stopped in the middle of a clearing, confused. Harry pulled out his wand and lit it again, holding it to the map. After glancing at it for a few seconds, his forehead wrinkled in confusion. Seeing this, Draco left Jade's side and made his way over to Harry, who handed the map to him.

"What…? _That_ doesn't make sense…" He muttered half to himself. Before him on the map, all five of the small dots stood clustered dead in the center of the circle drawn by Minerva McGonagall. He exchanged a brief glance with Harry, and then looked at the others, showing them what he was looking at.

"Bloody hell!" Ron said, exasperated, "it's right on top of us!!"

Just then the five teens heard an interesting noise; a noise that sounded almost like the ripping of old fabric. All of their eyes grew wide and all they had time to do was exchange quick panicky glances. Before they knew it, the ground that had been standing on quite literally ripped open, taking it right out from underneath their feet.

They landed with five thuds a few moments later, each attempting to pull themselves up and shake off the shock of the fall.

"_Christ_…" Harry groaned, pulling a blunt rock shaped oddly almost like a star, out from under his backside, "that'll leave a bruise…"

"An interestingly shaped bruise, at any rate…." Hermione mumbled, looking around at their surroundings; they were in the cave—a type of underground, tunnel-like cave.

"Never mind," Ron started, "_we_ were on top of _it_."

"Besides the bruise, is everyone okay?" Draco asked, as they all began to stand up. He got a mixed murmur of 'yes' from Harry, Ron, and Hermione, but he heard nothing from Jade. The others must have noticed her absence as well, and followed suite when Draco began looking around the dim surroundings for her. They eyes did not travel very far before they stopped and widened.

Jade was standing in a wide, rocky doorway, holding on to the side for support with her back to them. Directly in front of her stood a baby unicorn and from the looks of it, its mother, both of whom were so blindingly white that they nearly glowed in the dimness of the cave. What caused the mouths of the four wizarding teens to hang open slightly agape, speechless, was that Jade's free hand had poked its way out of the sleeve of Draco's sweatshirt, and she was gently petting the cheek of the baby, who snorted softly and who's eyes slid half shut with content; all the while, the mother sitting approvingly at Jade's feet, nuzzling her nose at the girl's ankle, seeming to like her.

"But… unicorns are the most reclusive magical creatures in existence! And… and she's a _muggle_! I've read so many books on them, but…not even any of the most experienced wizards have even come close to breaking that kind of barrier. I mean, and _lived_, you know." Hermione whispered, shocked.

"She's very special…" Draco said softly, almost dazedly, and for once the smirk that the other three saw on his face was not the least bit smug—it was genuinely pleased. He stepped forward slightly, looking past Jade; his eyes grew even further, "Look, there's more of them."

And indeed there were. Past the doorway where Jade stood, there was a path that split widely in a nearly circular manner and gently sloped down to a huge room-like cavity in the rock. In the center of the area was a large crystal clear, softly glowing pond. Gathered around comfortably either around the pond or scattered casually around the room, were what had to be more than 50 other unicorns.

Jade turned back to face them, her hand still stroking the cheek of the baby unicorn. She smiled contently at them, mainly at Draco, but it was obvious that she wasn't feeling very well.

Almost instantly following this, the mother slowly stood up and looked over to where Draco and the others stood together frozen a few yards away. With a soft approving snort, she gave a gentle shake of her head, gesturing in her own way for them to come over. She then turned her head back to Jade, and taking a very small piece of the fabric of the sweatshirt she was wearing into her teeth, she gently tugged it a few times, telling Jade to come as well. She then turned around, the baby following, and started to lead the dim way down the path.

Draco and the others had now made their way over as well and Jade held onto the wall for support until Draco reached her. His face fell—he didn't want anything to go wrong, and he felt awful witnessing the spells wear off; it seemed to be hitting pretty hard. With an almost silent sigh, he pulled one of her arms up around his neck and wrapped his arm around her waist, both of them leading the way down the path after the unicorns.

Once all five of the teens made it to the bottom of the path, a few of the unicorns lifted their heads slightly and gave the newcomers a brief glance, but showed no sign of alarm and then tiredly resumed their sleepy, half-awake positions. The mother unicorn and her foal led them through the sparse maze of the graceful, sleeping animals to a fairly large secluded area at the far inner side of the pond by the high wall where the two paths began to split. She then looked up at them and her head twitched in almost a nod at the teens; the two of them then proceeded to ease themselves down on a large bed of soft white material that looked and felt like a thicker, sturdier version of pillow stuffing, laying between her baby and a larger unicorn that the teens assumed was her mate.

The five of them looked around and discovered more of these strange beds across from their animal hosts.

"All right, let's all try to get some rest…" Harry said tiredly as they all started easing down into the puffy white beds.

Draco helped Jade down into a comfortable enough laying position, and then exhaustedly made to stand up and move to another available bed of white padding nearby Ron. He was stopped by Harry.

"Hey—" He began, "stay with her. It looks like it helps a little, at least…" Draco looked at him strangely for a moment. _Harry Potter_ had just said something _nice_ to him? He gave a very slight smile and twitched a nod, then turned back to Jade and settled back next to her half sitting up, half lying down. She looked up at him slowly and gave him a weak, tired smile. He returned it, but his spirit remained low—it was obvious that she was in a lot of pain.

"Are you going to be okay without that stuff…?" He asked quietly.

His face held concern, and even feeling like she was Jade would have had to be blind not to notice it. She didn't want him to worry; she wanted him to sleep. In the near half-year that she'd known him, he always had so much on his mind. She couldn't wait for it to be over for him, for him to get out of the life he'd grown so sick of—she cared a lot for him, and right now she was just one more thing for him to worry about.

"Mmhm." She murmured quietly. At this point in the night it was just about all she had the energy for. Draco wasn't buying it.

"I dunno…" He said, "I could go get Hermione—it may help you sleep better…" Jade cut him off gently with a tired smile.

"No, Draco…I'll be fine. Besides…she should save it for when it's really needed. What if someone else gets hurt, god-forbid? Besides, she needs sleep, and most of all, _you_ need sleep." She said, stopping briefly a few times to steady her voice. Draco smile weakly, but it was clear that he was still a bit nervous. Jade let out a quiet sigh, but her tired smile didn't fade and she gently put her hand on top of his, "Please don't worry, Draco. And get some rest…" And with that, her eyes shut and she was silent. She had fallen asleep.

Draco sighed quietly and gave her hand a brief gentle squeeze, then attempted to settle down as well. Finally, he shut his gray eyes—this would be a long day…


	17. Unexpected Allies

**A/n**: Hey everyone! Just wanted to give a big thank you to everyone who responded to chapter 16; I think I've thanked you all through PMs but I'm still very grateful : ]. Second of business, I'm kind of in a funk, because I have a stalker on my hands… ] : I mentioned it more in depth in the most recent chapter of my H2O story, but ugh… I'm just pretty upset and disturbed and it has been a very bad week for Kate =\ So when I edit these I'm gonna do my DAMNEST not to make them any more depressing than they already are, haha. Take care everyone, thanks for all your support! I appreciate and welcome it more than you can imagine, reading these kind reviews and messages has been the silver lining of my bad week : ]

*

Draco awoke a few hours later and groggily brought his watch to his face—It was 9am. He yawned; it was the most sleep he'd had at one time in months, but the reverse of day and night activities would take some getting used to.

He shifted on to his side lazily and looked down at Jade. She was still asleep in the same position he had helped her into hours earlier. She could probably sleep for quite a few more hours, but the other three would probably be awake within the next hour or so. He looked around—being nocturnal, the unicorns would be asleep or at least lazily milling around for the rest of the day.

This would give him quite a lot of time to think about one of the most prominent things on his mind. McGonagall was right, and he knew it; as soon as his father found out, there would be a prompt and violent backlash. Draco smirked bitterly—If Lucius was looking for a fight, then that's what he would get. His father was an awful man and would get what he had had coming to him for years.

Well, Draco thought with a smirk, when the time came, he'd be rearing.

-

The day passed endlessly slow for everyone. Once it got later in the afternoon, every once in a while someone would get up and go up to look through the hole where they had all so gracefully fallen into the cave to see how dark the sky was.

After a while, the five teens started to notice that the unicorns were beginning to get up and casually mill around in their small family groups. The mother unicorn from the previous day and her foal had gotten up as well, but both hovered quietly around Jade for a while before going off to the pond where some others were drinking.

When the five of them were about ready to leave what had been their home for the day, Hermione once more returned to Jade and took up the task of performing the charms on her. Once she was done, she paused for a moment and sat up on the bed of fluff with her.

"I still don't understand… You're sure that no one in your family was a witch or a wizard?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm positive. No one in my family keeps those kinds of secrets. Why do you ask? It's not like they gouge people with their horns or something."

"…They've been known to."

"Oh. Well. Isn't that pleasant…"

"Exactly. They're incredibly reclusive and have been seen less than two-hundred times to date. It's so strange… they don't seem the least bit afraid of you—They seem to absolutely adore you. I know this is odd, but…that has _never_ happened before, Jade."

"I… dunno. I guess I don't really know what to tell you. In the past 6 months I've seen all kinds of things that I never thought were real. I guess I've sort of learned that asking a whole lot of questions just gets me _more_ confused," Jade added tiredly with a chuckle, "But, I guess if I ever imagined that unicorns were real, I could only see them as beautiful."

Hermione smiled, but said nothing and looked up as Draco was returning. He smiled tiredly as well as he sat down on the other side of Jade, subconsciously putting his arm around the other side of her.

"'You two ready to go?" He asked, trying his best to sound upbeat. Hermione nodded and stood up, trying not to hesitate or give off any signal of reluctance. If Draco Malfoy could force a smile and try not to sound exhausted, so could she.

"Yup, I'll just go put these jars back in my bag." She said brightly, then wandered over to where her own bag was lying.

Draco looked down at Jade, who looked up at him with a puzzled look on her face. He chuckled at her expression.

"What?" He asked.

"They _gouge_ people?" She asked with a bit of an impish smirk. He smiled.

"They have, yeah. That's why we're a little surprised, is all. It's amazing they'd let us all get so near them," He gave her a gentle squeeze and tried to smile, "Are you sure that you're feeling better now?"

"I'm fine, you worry too much. You probably have gray hair and just can't see it because you're so _blonde_." She smiled a little and he couldn't help but crack a smirk.

"Yup, you're feeling better all right…"

"Did you get enough sleep, Draco?" She asked, concerned. She could mess with him all she wanted, but he would wear himself out this way—it was clear he hadn't had a regular night's sleep in all the months she had known him.

"As much as I'm going to; don't worry about it." He reassured quietly. At this point, Draco looked up in time to see Harry and Ron joining them as well.

"It's dark enough, now. Nothing casts a shadow anymore, but the woods ahead look pretty thick anyways…" Ron announced with a yawn, both of them standing above where Draco and Jade were seated, Hermione wandering over with her belongings as well.

"All right," Draco began, standing up, then leaning back down and helping Jade off of the fluff, "I suppose we'd better get moving, then."

As if on cue, a soft animal grunt was heard, and the teens turned to see the mother unicorn and her foal once again. The baby playfully tossed his head up under Jade's hand, silently asking her to pet him once again. Now that she knew they were killers, she was a little surprised at how affectionate the little guy was, but couldn't help but smile softly and oblige. Draco saw her face light up and a smirk started to spread across his face. He was surprised when he felt something wet on his hand, and heard Jade giggle. He looked down and saw the colt licking at his palm, and raised his eyebrows, a little taken aback at the affection from a rarely seen, potentially deadly animal.

"Uhh…huh."

"Heh, look out Jade, somebody's moving in on your bloke!" Ron scoffed a little from behind them, chuckling a little bit. She turned to face him and although her pale cheeks had pinkened a little, she rolled her eyes a little.

"This is a _male_, Ginger." Jade smirked at him and it was Ron's turn to blush.

"Hey…you never know…" Ron replied, stuttering a little and clearly embarrassed took this as his cue to be quiet.

"He's just sore that they don't like him," He said quietly to Jade with a devilish smirk, chuckling a bit as well. Jade's fire had come back to her a little bit with the help of those charms, and hopefully they could get her to the hospital soon so it could be back for good…"We really should get going, though."

As if understanding him, the baby nipped at his sleeve and tugged it gently, then did the same to Jade's leading them away from where all of them stood, followed by Harry, Ron, Hermione, and the colt's mother. They were shocked to find that they were led to another tunnel that branched off from the room that they were in. Even from where they stood at the entrance to the tunnel, they could see that it was a passageway that sloped upward and led back outside of the underground cave.

They all trudged their way upward and found themselves outside in the bitter winter air once again. Ahead of them was a brushy, thorny path much like the one they'd entered the forest through. As they were about to begin walking again, they heard a soft snort from behind them and turned to see the baby looking after them with limpid eyes.

"Aw…" Jade knelt down carefully and pet the animal softly, "Well, he _is_ a cute little guy…" The baby snorted and licked the side of her face and with a smile, she stood up. The colt looked up at Draco with the same expression he'd given Jade. The look was impossible not to give in to, and he knelt down slightly and pet as well, not being able to help smiling. He was met with a quiet, happy neigh, and Draco's hand was licked a few times as he pulled it away a minute later. Trying to hide the awe in his face, Draco stiffened his stance and plastered seriousness back into his eyes before turning back to face his friends.

"All right, all right, let's head out." He said quietly, turning back to the others. Draco felt Jade slip her hand into his reassuringly, and with a bracing, quiet sigh, they led the way down the path.


	18. Merry Christmas, Son

The next few days proved enormously rough for the five youths. As they traveled, the snow fell harder. Thankfully, there weren't many openings to the black winter sky in the thickly wooded and thorn-filled forest to allow enough snow through to prevent them from moving on, but the extreme cold and wind only made it feel worse.

The path they followed was tough to maneuver on its own; thick tree roots shoved their way to the surface of the earth, thorny brambles blocked their path here and there, and the five would have to walk for two hours at a time along the route before they came to a spot even remotely suitable for taking even a brief rest.

Relief finally came when they reached the destination of their third mapped out safe-spot—a large cave-like crevice that formed between two huge slabs of flat black rock. It wasn't the coziest of places to stay, but now in the third day of their travels, the five teens were far past being picky. They had one goal, and one goal alone at this point, which was making it to Andalyn without running into any problems, or worse, _people_. It was a long shot in the in dark—they all knew it, even Jade. No one said a thing about it.

They were two days away.

-

It was around 6 'o clock that evening and Draco was finally waking from what he realized was his first full night's rest in a year.

He shook himself out of his groggy daze and looked down at where Jade lay to his left, still asleep. His gaze then cast down to the back of his left hand where three black tally marks were drawn at the spot where his thumb joined the rest of his hand. He smirked and dug around in the pocket of his sweatshirt, pulling out a pen a moment later and quickly prying the cap off in his teeth. Draco slowly dragged the point of the pen down his skin, marking a fourth identical black tally mark next to the others. Putting the cap back on the pen, he shoved it back in his pocket. It was Christmas day, their fourth day of travelling.

'_Some holiday…'_

He set his head back against the cold black stone and sighed, his gray eyes staring upward at the ominous shadowy ceiling. A smirk played across his lips. He felt like a prisoner—counting away the days of his sentence with tally marks.

That's what he was. That's what all five of them were—prisoners. Goosebumps ran up his arms under his sweatshirt, knowing that they were all dragged into it solely because he'd asked. If not for him coming to them, they would all be at home eating dinner with their families, safe. But without them, he knew he'd have never gotten Jade out of the school alive.

Well, he'd gotten them all into it and now he'd get them out; plain and simple. If he had to die in the process, well then, so be it. Draco wasn't sure if he was more disturbed that he did not fear death, or that he knew it was a possibility.

Well, he thought, let what happens, happen.

''_Haven't got much to lose._'

Draco noticed a red-topped figure sit up a few yards away on the other side of the cave—Ron.

"Hey," He whispered, not sure if any of the others were awake yet, "What time is it?" Draco looked at his watch.

"'Little after six."

"'You sleep?"

Draco nodded. Ron followed suite, understanding.

"When should we wake them up?"

"'Nother twenty minutes, about."

Ron nodded again, and there was a brief silence in which he stared at the ground.

"'She all right?"

Draco looked down at Jade slowly, and sighed. He cast his gaze back up to Ron.

"Don't know."

Ron was quiet again and Draco watched him slump back into his tired, half-lying down position.

'Another twenty minutes…' Draco thought. He put his hand down and pushed some of the brown hair out of her neck. He _didn't_ know if she was all right. He had no idea. Draco knew nothing about the exact type or the extent of magic that was used against her, and he cursed Snape for it more with every hour. All he could do was hope that the doctors in Andalyn knew what they were doing, and that they were able to do it fast.

Fifteen minutes later, the others began to slowly wake up on their own, Jade being the last of them.

However, what woke them up was what worried them. Not only was there a dreadful, icy feeling in Draco's stomach and a strange unexplainable buzzing in his head, but Harry had a rude awakening as well.

"Ah… Merlin… _fuck_…" He was sitting up with his hand clapped across his forehead which instantly caused the others to snap their heads in his direction.

"Harry… what's going on?" Jade asked. Her voice was panicky, and it had reason to be; she had no clue about what Harry's freakishly-shaped scar was capable of. She looked over at Draco with confusion in her eyes. He put his hand on her shoulder as he passed her, making his way over to Harry, crouching down by him. He knew exactly what had happened, and the eerie buzzing in the back of Draco's neck and head grew stronger. He tried to shake it off a bit, and spoke slowly, his voice crystal clear.

"Potter… What did you see? It is Voldemort?" His voice was calm, but he knew that he didn't want to hear Harry's next words. Harry looked up at him dazedly, looking confused himself.

"That's... That's just it, Draco. It's not. It's your _father_."

The five of them were silent for a moment, watching Draco's face for a sign of reassurance. He finally sighed quietly and let his eyes shut briefly before standing and letting them open once again.

"Let him come." He said, starting to walk back over to where Jade sat, still completely in the dark regarding what was really happening, and as quickly and carefully as he could, pulled her into a standing position.

"_What_ did you say?! We've got to get _out_ of here, what are you _thinking_?!" Hermione began, she and the others standing up as well.

"She's right… Draco, I wouldn't have been able to see your father at all unless there was something keeping Voldemort. They're very powerful right now… Your father is almost a match for him, man. I don't know how that could have happened…"

Draco's eyes became cold and images from a meeting he'd witnessed between his father, the Dark Lord, and the rest of the Death Eaters early the previous year flashed into his head. The sick smile upon his father's face, the pride in Voldemort's. He turned on his heels and stared at the three of them.

"I'm sure I can figure out how…" He muttered, then spoke firmly, "I don't care. Let him come. If I've got to fight that _madman_, so be it."

"We're not going to let you fight him on your own! He could kill all of us if he wanted to!" Ron exclaimed. He, like the others, was completely bewildered. Draco, however, knew exactly what the Dark Lord had let Lucius be capable of and would not let them get between he and his father.

"No. You won't be getting anywhere near him. It's not you he's after; if you don't provoke him he won't touch you; he's too powerful now to get your blood get on his hands and risk his fucking reputation. If anyone has to be killed because of this, let me kill him and be done with it, or let him kill me in fight. We've got to hide Jade, though, she'll be what he—" Draco stopped short. His eyes darted around the cave. Jade was nowhere to be found. He felt his entire body freeze with panic and he instantly realized what had happened, though he did not want to admit it. By this time, the others had horrorstricken looks on their faces as well, but the cold feeling in Draco's blood was soon replaced by boiling rage. The buzzing at the back of his skull peaked. With almost animal growl of sheer fury he grasped his wand and stormed out of cave, almost forgetting that the others were there.

Draco found just who he was looking for, standing out in the middle of the clearing; a dark cloaked figure standing out against the snowy, twilight clearing.

"Merry Christmas, son. I've been waiting for you."


	19. Goodbye, Goodnight

***** IMPORTANT A/N****: This chapter will be VERY long. WARNING: VERY GRAPHIC VIOLENCE.**

**-**

Draco stopped short. His eyes darted around the cave. Jade was nowhere to be found. He felt his entire body freeze with panic and he instantly realized what had happened, though he did not want to admit it. By this time, the others had horrorstricken looks on their faces as well, but the cold feeling in Draco's blood was soon replaced by boiling rage. The buzzing at the back of his skull peaked. With almost animal growl of sheer fury he grasped his wand and stormed out of cave, almost forgetting that the others were there.

Draco found just who he was looking for, standing out in the middle of the clearing; a dark cloaked figure standing out against the snowy, twilight clearing.

"Merry Christmas, son. I've been waiting for you."

"Where is she," It wasn't a question; Draco knew exactly how his father had managed to get Jade out of the cave without a sound.

"Where's who? I haven't seen you in weeks, Draco, and _this_ is how you greet your father?" The corners of Lucius's mouth twisted upwards wryly. The snow had begun to fall and lightly covered the top of the two men's identical white-blonde hair.

"Where _is_ she," Draco spoke through his teeth now. His father knew what he was talking about, and was getting a rise out of already having the upper hand over his son.

"Now, son. I think that at the very least, you owe me an explanation. I provide you with shelter, your schooling, a career, _a place in the world_, and this is how you repay me? After all that we've done, all the progress we've made - you take their side?!"

At this point, Lucius and Draco had begun to slowly circle the clearing, glaring at one another with the same steel gray eyes.

"I don't believe that I owe you anything, Lucius. Where the _fuck_ did you put her?" The buzzing in Draco's skull was so strong that it almost blinded him. His teeth clenched together as he spoke to the man that had raised him. By this time, Harry, Ron and Hermione had run to the mouth of the cave and stood frozen, watching the two men in the clearing. Draco cast his eyes to the side and saw the look on Harry's face that he had been dreading — Harry was ready to fight at the first sign of trouble. Draco glared at him and shook his head once. He wouldn't have them dragged into this anymore than they already had been.

"Oh, don't worry, Draco. They're the _least_ of your concerns," Lucius scoffed and his thin lips slowly curled upward at either end and his eyes narrowed. Draco felt an energy humming in the air so powerful that it caused the hair on the back of his neck to rise from the charge; he knew what was about to happen.

Lucius lifted his hand from the inside of his black cloak—the hand that usually held is wand was now empty. His smirk went sour; with a flick of his wrist as if to shoo them away, a green bolt shot from Lucius's palm and flew towards the three watching teens.

It surrounded them completely on all sides; Draco had seen this before. He saw Ron's mouth move, yelling something that was now silenced by the web. The red-head pulled his poorly-mended wand out and raised it, and Draco was thankful when Hermione stopped him—Draco figured that she would know the consequence of trying to perform magic inside of one of those things; not only would any spell cast from inside be completely ineffective, but whoever cast it would meet a rather slow, very painful end.

"See, Draco? They won't be bothering us one bit."

"Where is Jade, Lucius." The blood was pounding in Draco's ears. He ground his teeth together so hard that he was sure they may crush each other.

"So impatient. _Jade_? Doesn't ring a bell, but your little whore is over there, son."

Draco followed his father's eyes to the opposite side of the snowy clearing tens of yards away. There was a wide pond with a thick layer of ice coating it, surrounded by a few ancient trees. He seethed when he saw where his father had put her. Jade sat in the snow at the foot of one of the trees, her back straight against the trunk with her arms wrapped around behind it, her eyes closed and even from a distance Draco could see her jaw clenched tightly. Lucius had taken the sweatshirt that Draco had given her and left her exposed to the winter air in her torn up t-shirt and jeans, leaving her trembling slightly under the bare tree branches. Something wasn't right about the way she was sitting, Draco knew it; the way her hands were wrapped around the back of the tree out of his sight, the fact that she was sitting up too straight to be comfortable with injuries that she had...

He glanced briefly at Lucius, whose lips were curled up slightly at one end and felt his hands clench into hard fists. Something was wrong. He let out a growl at his father and turned away, storming through the snow to the other side of the clearing where Jade sat. The buzzing in his head was debilitating, but he cleared the distance in a matter of seconds, setting himself down in the snow in front of her.

"Jade."

Her eyes flashed opened and stared up at him.

"He's going to kill you. _Run_."

Draco's face blanked. Jade's eyes were glazed over, but he could tell she was under no magical influence. Her voice wavered just slightly, and it was then that he could tell that this trembling wasn't due to the cold. His eyebrows knit together and he followed the length of Jade's arms around to the back of the tree. What he found brought the buzzing in his brain to a painful peak. The snow that spread at the foot of the tree was now bright red. Both of her palms were turned outwards away from the trunk of the tree, one arm above the other. Holding her arms in place were two short, thick barbed spears driven through each of her wrists into the tree. He gripped the bark of the tree, his breathing coming in heated, enraged pants. The buzzing was gone, but was replaced with something new. His vision and focus were entirely clear now, his world razor sharp. He knelt in front of Jade again, who continued to stare at him, her jaw clenching and unclenching rhythmically; she hissed at him through her teeth now.

"You need to take them…and _run_. Go."

He ignored her.

"He's not getting away with this."

"Don't be _stupid! _Get _out _of here,Draco!" She sounded desperate and demanding, now; her voice cracked slightly as she raised her voice.

"_No_." His voice was firm. He knit his eyebrows together and surveyed her situation, trying to find a way to remove the spears from her wrists without making the condition worse.

Behind him, Lucius stood casually at the other end of the clearing, having strolled only a few yards after his son. He watched the two teenagers, scoffing dryly to himself. The sight disgusted him; he would not have his son disgrace him this way, or any way. He would make sure it never happened again. He smirked against the bitter cold and pulled his hand from his cloak once again. Drawing his arm back, his smile slowly spread into a wide grin as he pulled his fingers into a tight fist and a familiar dark green blazed from his knuckles to his wrist. Lucius's eyes met Jade's and he smirked, lifting a pale eyebrow in amusement; he thrived on the terror in her gaze. She knew what was coming.

"Draco, watch out!" Her words came too late. Lucius threw his hand forward sending the ominous knot of deep green light flying at his son's back.

The hair on the back of Draco's neck rose, but he didn't look away from Jade. The fractions of a second that passed felt like minutes, but Draco raised his wandless hand and flicked his wrist casually as if to shoo away a fly; a reflex.

The green mass of light stopped a meter from Draco's back and changed direction, zooming back across the clearing at his father. Lucius's mouth tightened into a frown and he twitched his head casually, the bolt flying past his head and slamming into the rock wall behind him, missing him by inches.

Draco stopped only when he saw Jade's eyes bulge slightly. He blinked down at his own hand in shock. It was hot, so much that it was close to uncomfortable and tingled wildly. He knit is eyebrows together, looking back at Jade only briefly before standing straight and swinging around to face his father.

"Well, well, well, Draco. I see that there is much more about you that I failed to know. Now, tell me, son: where in the _hell_ have you gotten that from?" He spoke to his son through clenched teeth and his grey eyes narrowed as the two stalked a few paces closer to one another across the clearing. Lucius's demeanor had changed slightly, and Draco could tell that what he had just done, _whatever_ it had been, had made his father feel a little less secure. Draco's mind was flooding; he had no idea what he had just done or where it had come from, but Lucius need not know either truth.

"Let her go, Lucius." His voice shook slightly, but Draco glared at his father intently. Lucius's mouth quirked into a half grimace as he and his son began to circle the middle of the clearing, never looking away from one another.

"I simply cannot do that, Draco. You see, I am a man of my word. A man who follows through on his commitments; who stays loyal to those whom loyalty is owed," Lucius smirked and casually lifted his empty hand, his smile spreading as he twisted his fingers delicately and another web of dark green light spun around them, wrapping around his palm and wrist like a snake, "Unfortunately for you, none of that passed on." His face grew dark as he tossed his hand forward, the light flying at Draco once again.

Draco felt the tingling in his hand grow stronger, edging on painful. He ground his teeth together and threw his arm straight outward in front of his body. His hand burned painfully again and he grinned: Let it burn. He'd no clue what the extent of this new manifestation in his body was, but he'd made a promise to himself; this would end, and he would be the one to end it even if it killed him.

He felt the burning cease and become the sting of coldness; he grunted slightly as the heavy mass hit his open palm. It was like catching a ball of ice, but the spell had no effect upon him now that he held it. He grinned a little, staring at it with the awe of a child as the menacing green glow melted into an icy white-blue and wound itself affectionately around Draco's fingers as it had his father's just moments before. His grin widened into a broad half-smile and his confidence surged.

"I follow through on more than you know. _Incendio_." Draco muttered under his breath and took a deep bracing breath. Almost as if it were a second nature, Draco's hand flicked forward forcefully and the now lightly-colored web flew at Lucius, who stood fairly rigid at the other end of the clearing, his lips pursed tightly together.

The counter-spell hit the rounded silver head of Lucius's cane, which he threw in front of his body as a prompt reflex. However, rather than bouncing off of the metal and reflecting away from Lucius, the spell split around it; catching Lucius off-guard, one half flew towards his face and he quickly spun away to avoid it.

Draco watched as his father slowly turned back to face him. The look in his eyes gave Draco a thrill that he hadn't felt in years. As Lucius lifted his head, Draco grinned smugly; there was a deep red, quickly purpling burn where the fire-spell had struck Lucius's cheek.

"This is the life you want, Draco? _This_ is what you want?" Lucius smirked, his face contorting into a pleased grin, "Then _have it_."

Draco's face dropped and he knit his eyebrows together; he knew his father would not have given up that easily. Lucius's smile spread further across his face as he nodded his head once in the direction behind him at where Jade sat under the bare tree branches. In a quick motion almost too fast to be seen, Lucius balled his hands into tight fists and jerked them apart roughly.

The scream made the color drain from Draco's body. The barbed spears were yanked from Jade's wrists letting them drop down to the reddened snow and he watched horrified as her back arched against the tree trunk from the pain. It was the first time he had heard her scream.

Lucius flicked his palm and in an instant the girl was pulled upright held up against the tree bark, an unseen force restraining her by the chest. Draco felt his body flinch as his father grinned at him and suddenly clenched one fist together. Draco almost became sick as a dull snap was heard in the clearing; he could do nothing but watch as his father restrained her and snapped the bottom half of Jade's left leg in less than an instant. Her scream nearly knocked Draco backwards; it killed him to hear. Lucius glared at his son, his lips curled upward in a triumphant smirk.

"She's all yours," He hissed at Draco, his gray eyes fierce as he dropped his arms, letting her fall onto her side in the snow and stalked out of the way, leaving Jade in Draco's clear sight.

Draco's skin was on fire. He felt as though he were having a heart attack and failed to notice as the landscape started moving around him. He didn't realize he'd been walking until he reached Jade who lay in the snow feebly letting one of her hands flutter around her leg. Draco felt his breathing come in heated, ragged pants; the bone had cut right through her skin. He dropped to his knees quickly and stared at her, his heart racing. He had sworn not to let anything hurt her, and this was what had happened. Her eyes were glazed and her face had gone a sickly green, her breaths coming as hard whimpers as she held back the screams. His mind scrambled and he felt his focus get thrown completely off center—he did not even know how to begin to help her.

"Jade… this is my fault…" She cut him off quickly. The response he received was not what he was expecting.

"It…was a trap, Draco! To distract you! You need… to GO, now!" She nearly screamed at him. Her eyes grew wide as they darted behind Draco.

It took a moment for Draco to understand what she had said. In an instant, it happened. His senses had been so thrown off that he didn't even feel it coming until it was too late. The _avada kedavra_ curse struck him hard in the back. His body convulsed, his eyes widening as it shocked him and his body collapsed face up in the snow.

Jade's face dropped. Pushing her body up slightly, she slipped a little in the snow as she hovered over Draco's body. Letting her weight drop to one elbow she pressed her free hand against his chest, shaking around his neck and face as her entire body shook. She was dizzy and nearly sick and desperately looked to where Harry, Ron and Hermione stood trapped behind Lucius's dome, looking for some sign that he would get up. Hermione's face was buried in Ron's chest and her body heaved heavily. Although Jade couldn't hear her, she knew that the girl was crying. Harry stared back at Jade helplessly, his face screwed up in anguish as he rubbed Hermione's back, trying to calm her down. Jade let her hand come to rest above his heart and let the shock hit her, the dizziness causing her to slump onto her side in the snow. His final words were buzzing around in her head, making her vision blur again: '"_This is my fault_," he said. Look at what _I've_ done.'

Lucius's black robes swayed effortlessly behind him as he crossed the clearing, standing over Jade and his son's body and quirking a smile.

"So sorry dear, that took much longer than I'd prepared for…" He mumbled, his voice dripping with disgust. Kneeling down slightly, he wrapped his fingers around Jade's upper arm squeezing roughly and stood upright again, yanking the girl away from Draco's body violently, "Thankfully, muggle filth poses no aggravation."

Harry's scar burned so badly that the pain was disfiguring. His eyes were slits behind his glasses and his free hand was clenched tightly into a ball. He knew that this had been a possibility, but Draco was probably one of the best young wizards that Harry had ever seen; he knew how to handle himself and anyone that had come his way. What it was that they had watched him do, though… Harry had no explanation for it but it had been incredible. But the hand that Lucius had dealt him, torturing Jade in front of Draco to distract him had been a low blow. Harry would have reacted the same way that Draco had. And now, as for whatever the transformation that had taken place in Draco was, they would never know. He was gone, Jade would be next, and then, if he, Hermione and Ron couldn't take Lucius on together, they would be dead as well.

Harry watched sadly as Lucius dragged Jade through the snow towards the frozen lake, the blood still dripping from the fresh wounds in her wrists and now in her leg. He sighed angrily and ground his teeth together; he knew what Lucius was going to do, and Harry found only mild solace in the fact that Jade appeared to be losing consciousness.

A large boulder sat at the lake's frozen edge, covered in a layer of snow. Lucius stood before it, still holding Jade by her arm, and smirked. With his free hand, he lifted his cane and casually pointed the end towards the boulder, a dark spark emitting from the tip and sending a thunderous shock through it. The huge mass of rock trembled and flew upwards, hovering in the air for just a moment before it came crashing down, breaking a huge hole in the center of the frozen lake, revealing the dark ice water beneath it as it sunk slowly to the bottom.

Harry sighed sadly and briefly shut his eyes. When they opened they were immediately drawn back to Lucius, who had lifted Jade up only slightly higher in his grasp and smiled sickly down at her. For a moment, though, Harry was distracted by what he could have sworn was movement out of the corner of his eyes. He tore is gaze away from the ill-fated muggle girl for a moment to let his eyes fall where he had thought he had seen the movement. Seeing nothing but Draco's still, fallen body, he knit is eyebrows together and returned his gaze to Jade and Lucius. The blonde haired man dropped her arm, letting her upper body fall to the ground and knelt beside her briefly.

"Now, dear, it's only fair to fight magic with magic. Since you have none, this will be done your way; the natural muggle way. Pity for you, is it not? Don't fret, girl. You can seek your solace in the knowledge that it wasn't magic that killed you."

Harry's eyebrows creased together hard. His scar burned wildly and he ground his teeth together. If Lucius wasn't going to use his magic to kill Jade, then why would his scar hurt so much?

It was then that he saw it. His eyes were pulled straight to Draco's body. There was not a doubt in his mind what he saw this time; Draco's right shoulder had twitched. Harry's body froze, his hand going completely still on Hermione's back before dropping from it entirely. Draco's head lifted up slightly, and Harry watched as he got his bearings and stiffly began to prop up his body in the snow. He could not believe that he was seeing; the _avada kedavra_ curse had not missed, it had struck and killed Draco the same way that he had watched it strike and kill Cedric Diggory that night two years ago. What he was seeing was not possible, but just in case…

Harry turned his gaze to Ron and Hermione and grabbed Ron's shoulder, shaking it hard.

"Look. Look at this, d'you _see_ that?!"

"Hell… he's alive?! Hermione! Hermione, _look_!" Ron let go of Hermione, turning her around to face the scene in front of them.

Draco sat up in the snow, one knee up and supported himself by resting his elbow on it. His head was getting a rush of stimulation so powerful that it was debilitating at first; his eyes couldn't focus and he had groped clumsily in the snow to push himself into the position in which he now sat. But it was fading fast now and was soon replaced with something; a very familiar and now welcome buzzing. He blinked down at his hands, his vision sharpening to immediate focus. They were getting warmer, almost uncomfortably warm. He grinned, and let his gaze cast upwards.

His body froze stiffly when his eyes hit Lucius. His father's back was to him, and he watched him crouched in the snow next to Jade speaking to her. Jade…she was still alive. But it was then that Draco saw the gaping break in the ice and the black frozen water it exposed, and he knew what was about to happen. He watched Lucius stand and casually toss his right hand into the air; Jade's body rose about thirty feet in the air, and Draco watched Lucius smile. Beginning to feel adrenaline and rage course through his body he began to pull his body upwards until he was standing upright in the clearing. As he took his first step forward, Lucius brought his arm crashing down forcefully, sending Jade straight down speeding towards the ice water. The sound of the splash echoed hollowly in Draco's chest and he ground his teeth together roughly. His eyes went straight to his father. Lucius stood at the water's edge, his hands folded elegantly atop his cane, his back to Draco. As Draco approached he reached down in the snow picking up the one item that he had had his eye on from the minute he caught its glint in the white winter snow. He wrapped his hand around the icy metal, winding his fingers dexterously to avoid the spikes. He glanced down at the weapon in his hand and grimaced: Jade's blood hung frozen from the upper half of it. He quickly pushed the weapon up his sleeve and smirked.

Draco's eyes darted up to his father's figure standing a few yards away facing away from him. He needed to act quickly. There was still a chance, a fighting chance that Jade was alive; she was a fighter and didn't give up easily, he knew. But with every second that passed that chance grew smaller and smaller.

"_Lucius_." The dark, hissing voice that emitted from Draco's throat almost surprised him: he liked it. He grinned as he saw his father's shoulders tense and his body get very still. Very slowly, Lucius turned to face his son. His face was stone, his complexion saved from total insipidness only by the fresh burn upon his cheek.

"Draco…" Lucius trailed off. The spell had struck and the spell had killed, as it was meant to do. How was he staring at a living dead man?

"_I thought you followed through on your commitments, Lucius._" Draco grinned, lifting his hand slightly and with a graceful flick of his wrist, Lucius was slammed back-first into the ancient tree to their left: the same tree that, minutes ago, had been Jade's restraint. The wind may have been knocked out of him, but Lucius's snarl returned to his face.

"You, don't have the guts to try to kill your father. You're not powerful enough." It was then that Draco watched something that made his grin grow even wider: Lucius quickly sent his hand flying outwards and uttered another unforgiveable curse, "_Crucio_!"

Draco did not flinch. He did not blink. He only smiled as he watched the realization hit Lucius's face: his magic was no longer effective without his wand. With another flick of Draco's hand, Lucius was thrown backwards up against the tree again. The older man stumbled in the snow before pulling himself upright slowly, staring at Draco with the same stone gray eyes as his son.

"_Now, father; it's only fair to fight magic with magic. But don't worry, Lucius. You can seek your solace in the knowledge that it wasn't magic that killed you._" Draco's smile faded as he reached out and gripped his father's collar and shoved the man roughly against the tree holding him in place with ease, using strength he did not even know he possessed. At that moment, he didn't care. He would end this. He felt Lucius struggle violently against him to no avail; he could not be budged now.

"_Goodbye, father_." In a fraction of a moment the frozen metal spike was free of Draco's sleeve and back in his hand, where the metal felt warm and inviting wrapped in his fingers. In one swift movement he raised the spike over his head and hurled it down where it belonged: Lucius's heart. Draco stared hard at the shock in his father's eyes; he wanted to remember that shock for as long as he lived.

He stopped shoving only when he felt the end of the hard steel pierce the frozen tree bark behind his father. He stared hard at Lucius, whose mouth hung open slightly, frozen in shock. He let go and swiftly turned away, leaving no time to see his father's body grow lifeless and slump to the ground. Draco hardly noticed that his feet were quickly carrying him towards the lake, his gray eyes focused on the freshly broken hole. He removed his sweatshirt unconsciously dropping it in the snow as he walked, never stopping even as he kicked his trainers from his feet.

Harry froze. The dome around them was dissipating as its creator's life slipped away, but Draco had put quite a distance between them and himself in just a few seconds. Surely Draco was not going to do what it _looked_ like he were going to do; it was getting late now, and the temperature was far below freezing. If he entered that water, it would be incredibly difficult to get out again, and while he hated to say it, Jade's cause was certainly already lost.

Draco hovered at the edge of the ice for a brief moment, squinting slightly in the growing darkness. He took a deep breath and with a sharp splash, Draco dove into the icy black water.

The instant that Lucius's lethal dome had disappeared, Harry, Ron and Hermione raced across the clearing in Draco's wake, hoping to catch him before he made the leap so that he could be stopped. It was too late. They hurried to the edge of the ice, watching the just-disturbed water and sharing looks of panic and worry; diving in after him would only put more people at risk, and none of them had any experience with spells that manipulated bodies of water.

"He… He's a smart kid. He knows what's happened… He'll come up in a second." Ron's voice was, for once, monotonous and his eyes were wide, staring emptily at the gap in the ice. Harry and Hermione stayed silent, hoping that their friend was right.

Thirty seconds passed, and the exposed surface of the lake had stilled again completely. A minute went by, and then another; the lake's surface remained undisturbed with no sign of Draco. The faces of the three waiting teenagers were grim. Finally, at the very start of what would be Draco's third minute underwater, the surface of the water broke so suddenly that it caused the three to jump. What they saw both relieved and hurt them. Draco had emerged from the water and gasped hard, taking in hard deep pants the second his head hit the air; he was alive, and had managed to make it out of the frozen lake in one piece. However, Draco was not alone. He had his free arm around a motionless, unbreathing Jade, who he impatiently boosted up higher, a cue to his friends to pull her out immediately.

Both Harry and Ron immediately reached down to pull the girl from the water, exchanging brief pained glances with one another. They gently dragged her still form to lay on the snow covered ground next to the lake before returning to Draco, quickly yanking him from the gap in the ice and pulling him to safety a few feet away from her.

"Draco, Draco can you feel anything?! It's very important that you tell me if you can't feel anything in your limbs!" Hermione's voice was panic stricken, pushing her fingers gently at Draco's calves and forearms with one arm and pulling her wand from her back pocket with the other, "_Siccus_!" with a quick wave of her wand, Draco's clothes and hair were dry.

Draco, however, felt no discomfort from the cold and he felt rather like he had a fever, and only experienced frustration at the small crowd hovering over him.

"Thanks. I feel everything, fine, fine… Move back," He pushed his body up abruptly, his clothes now dry and crawled forward a few feet in the snow towards where Jade was laying. Hermione placed her hand on his back and grimaced slightly.

"Draco… It's over."

He ignored her. He quickly dropped himself to sit in the snow and stared at her. She wasn't moving, but he knew she wasn't gone yet. He reached out and slid one arm under her neck and one under her legs and tugged her body across his legs. She was ice cold, her clothes still soaked with freezing water which had cleared most of the blood from the wounds. He quickly pushed the wet hair out of her face and shook her gently by the shoulders.

"Jade. Jade, come on…" His eyes were glazed over, almost possessed as he stared down at her pale face, "Granger, dry her off!" His eyes darted over her face and down her body, looking for any sign of life.

Hermione sighed sadly from her spot behind him and bit her lip, but obliged and stayed silent, watching him.

Draco slipped Jade off of his legs and down onto the snow flat on her back again, rising up on his knees over her and after bracing himself slightly, brought both his hands down on the middle of her chest, pumping them forcefully down trying to get any air into her lungs. It felt so unnatural, trying to bring a muggle back from non-magical injury without using magic; he didn't even know if there was a spell that could fix what he had caused.

He stared down at her face hard, his eyebrows creasing together tightly and his lips formed a hard line. He had no comprehension of the three sets of pained eyes that watched him silently from behind him. Draco fumbled slightly as he felt a strange feeling seep into his body. The tingling that had before signified the growth of something new inside of him was beginning to fade, and with it the overwhelming strength and power that he had possessed. He felt his pushes upon Jade's chest grow weaker, and he growled slightly and pressed on, determined. His view of her face blurred slightly and he shook his head slightly, trying to re-focus. There was a strange feeling overcoming his body, as if a drain on his life had been pulled and was being pulled away from him. He grunted again, frustrated, and continued to try to pump air into Jade's lungs, stopping periodically to attempt muggle CPR; he knew little of what he was doing, but absolutely had to try.

Draco's vision blurred again, and he ground his teeth together. With every pump of his hands it became more and more exhausting to push; he had to muster up more and more energy for every movement, only to see no change in Jade. She was motionless, save for his pushing, her chest still and un-breathing. There was no flutter in her eyes, no color left in her cheeks. But still, he could not let himself believe it.

It was only when he felt his body give out and collapse nearly on top of her that Draco stopped. He managed to force himself off to her side, lying on his side in the snow facing her. He was stunned by how little energy he possessed; how dizziness was setting in, and how the world appeared dimmer. Draco barely noticed as Harry, Ron and Hermione crouched over him immediately, their voices muffled to him hardly making sense.

"Draco, are you all right?" Harry's voice was the calmest. Draco heard the words and yet could not form his mouth around his own; he was not sure if he was, nor if he possessed the words for the draining feeling overtaking his body. He lie in the snow with his head on the ground, hardly feeling its coldness as it melted against his skin and into his hair.

For a moment, he stared at Jade. Jade, the strongest person he had met in his life, the one who had _changed_ it: the one that he had promised to save and had failed. She was gone, but she looked so much like she had on the nights where he would trek down to the dungeons with a blanket to stay with her while slept, to keep her warm even though he knew he couldn't stop her physical pain; only now, he thought, was different. Now she wasn't asleep, but now her pain was over. Failure is bittersweet, he thought.

His body was weak. Draco fought to keep his eyes open, and he could not tell whether he was fighting to stay conscious, or to stay alive. His head was throbbing now and the blurriness in his sight was coming more frequently now. He heard nothing of what the panicked Hermione was shrieking from his left, nor could he feel the cold of the snow that he was laying in. Draco let his eyes slip lazily to Jade. He was very quickly losing all of his energy, and without realizing it he let his hand come to rest on her stomach on top of hers. The moment his hand touched her, he felt a sharp, powerful sting hit his fingertips, accompanied by a blue spark that zapped the cold winter air between the two of them. He grimaced hard and let his hand drop weakly as darkness began to settle in behind his eyes, overtaking him completely.

The last time he would ever touch her, he thought, and all he had to show for it was the sting of a static shock.

A/N: This is not the end.


	20. End

-

First came the warmth through the darkness; a kind of subtle, comforting warmth. Then… then came the light. The light was less comforting. Harsher than it had been before, almost blue it was so white. But then there was more. Fuzzy shapes, blurred colors and muffled sound—voices. Familiar voices.

A few minutes passed and his eyes adjusted to the light, and it was no longer blinding. He had been right; the light was harsher than last time. It was fluorescent, man-made. The blurs and blobs began to take shape and voices became clearer; he could make out words, sentences. The voices were panicky, excited. He could feel hands on his shoulders and the blob sharpened into close faces and bodies.

Harry, Ron and Hermione.

Draco glanced around him; he was in a bed of what must have been a hospital room. He could hear them jabbering at him asking if how he felt and what he remembered and how this had happened, but for the moment he ignored them and wrinkled his forehead in confusion and muttered a single word.

"…_Really_?!"

He had died once and come back. Then, when whatever miracle that had brought him back to life had begun to wear off, he had died again. He knew he had died; he had felt the life slip out of him, which is a feeling you don't forget – and now he finds out that he's alive again? How? _Why_?

"Draco?! Draco how are you feeling?"

Hermione was waving her hand in front of her face drawing his attention back to the three people in his room. She might have been a brilliant witch but _damn_ was she persistent. He paused for a minute to actually evaluate the answer. He was a little sore, a little dizzy which could have been attributed to his sitting up too quickly. He looked down at himself; no missing limbs, no casts. A few scrapes on his arms, but her remembered well how they had formed; the jagged ice from the lake he had dived into in his failed attempt to save Jade. He frowned.

"I'm fine." He pushed the covers off of himself and stretched a little; his muscles were stiff, probably for not moving for god knew how many hours or days. He bent his knees slightly and sat up further, letting his legs hang off the side of the bed.

"Whoa, buddy… 'you think you should be sitting up and all, right now?" Ron's voice came next, and Draco watched his pale orange eyebrows raise.

"Why not."

"You were _dead_ for a while, for starters. Twice." Harry said, his eyebrows raised under his shaggy bangs as well.

"Funny thing, death is." Draco sighed a little and stared out the window, watching the snow fall.

Hermione glanced at Harry and frowned a little, her eyebrows creased in worry. She nudged him gently with her elbow.

"Draco… we have a lot to tell you. We found out right after we got you here, that your father was killed about a week ago, right after we left Hogwarts," Harry began, and paused when he saw Draco's eyes break from the window, "Draco… it turns out that your father didn't want to go after you himself. Apparently he's been good at hiding what a bastard he is from your mother, and didn't want to blow his cover. When he told Voldemort 'no,' Voldemort killed him and assumed his body. What we met in the clearing that night… it was nothing but him in your father's body using it in order to come after you, to stop you. I don't know how you did what you did, man, but when you thought you killed Lucius… you ended Voldemort for good."

"You brought down the entire Dark Side revolt, Draco. I don't know if you can comprehend what we're saying right now, but…it's over. You stopped it." Hermione's voice was quiet but hopeful.

Draco's eyes had cast out the window about halfway through what Harry had said. He was fully awake, he could hear and see everything around him as clearly as ever. He could make no mistake about what Harry or Hermione had said, and made no mistake about it being a wonderful thing – something he had been hoping for for the last year of his life. But he couldn't bring himself to smile; not yet. He nodded slightly and looked at the three of them.

"Where's Lucius's body?"

"We left it in the Forbidden Forest; we had to. We only had the resources to bring one of you back." Hermione chose her words carefully, warily avoiding Jade's name. Draco felt his jaw clench and he stared hard at the wall in front of him. Granger didn't have to say it to know that it means that Jade's body was laying out there in the woods with his father's. He sighed and glanced out the window again; he couldn't be angry. She had been gone, and the three of them had done more to help him than he could have ever dreamed of. He nodded again.

"The Daily Prophet is going to want to hound you for interviews the minute they catch wind that you're awake, bro." Ron stated matter-of-factly, but even his face held some worry.

"I'm not talking to any paper for a while. I'm sorry, Potter. Seems I kind of stole your thunder."

Harry smirked a little; he knew Draco would be depressed after the events of a few days ago, but he was glad to see that an ounce of the old Draco Malfoy shone through.

"Believe me, I don't mind," Harry replied, slightly comforted by the ghost of a smirk he thought he caught on Draco's pale face, "Do you need anything? You've been out for a few days now…"

"Water. Just water." Draco had barely even gotten the words out of his mouth before Hermione Granger thrust a glass of water at him, "Heh… Thanks, Grang—Hermione."

"You're welcome. We should probably let you get some rest… I know you said you felt fine but to be quite frank you died twice. I think that warrants a nap."

Draco smirked a little and stared emptily down at the water in the glass.

"Maybe. Yeah."

"We won't be going too far," Harry said, "We'll hold down the fort out there. Get some rest, man. We're glad you're okay." And with a smile from each of them, he was alone again in the hospital room.

Draco looked down and saw an IV in the back of his hand and smirked; this had to be for show. If they were at Andalton General, no doubt he'd been tended to by wizards and witches upon his arrival. However, because there were muggle members of the staff as well, they must have stuck the IV in him to keep up appearances. He smirked a little and rolled his eyes and yanked it out, dropping it next to the hospital bed. He got up and stretched his legs a little before shuffling over to the window, looking out at the gray snow covered scenery and sighed sadly.

It was over; he had ended what he wanted to end, but not at the cost he'd wanted. Jade would be so proud of him if she could see him now, he knew it. But this isn't how he wanted it to happen; he wanted her to be proud of him in person, not in memory. He cut his eyes and creased his eyebrows together, pained. It wasn't fair that he'd had not one, but two second chances at life. All this time he had thought it was Harry Potter with all the power; Harry Potter would be the one that would end it. Draco didn't care who ended it, just that it was over. He didn't know what had happened to his body, but it hadn't been enough.

His face blanked and he frowned a little and head back to his bed. Maybe getting some rest would help him feel less hollow. He climbed back in and let his head hit the pillow, staring up at the ceiling. It was only a matter of a few minutes before he began to drift off.

*

The hallway was dark. It was long, and he found himself groping at the walls, looking for a door, a knob, a light switch; anything that would help him escape the obscurity that surrounded him. He stumbled a little further and ground his teeth in frustration. He lost his footing, tripping slightly over his own feet. His arm flew out sideways to steady himself, and felt his hand come into contact with a metal knob. Carefully groping around in the dark so as not to lose it, he wrapped his fingers around the cold metal and turned it, pushing forward as a door gave way slowly and swung open.

He squinted slightly, finding himself facing a brightly lit white hallway. His vision was blurry, as if he were dreaming – was he, he wondered? He stepped through the doorway out into it and stared straight ahead. People were moving around him on either side, appearing to be running but it seemed that time had slowed for everyone but Draco. He looked around him, and saw doors on either side of the hallway, gurneys being pushed by men and women in scrubs, wearing stethoscopes. He must have been in the hospital.

Draco started walking a little, in awe as he was able to move freely around people who appeared nearly motionless. He came to a man in a white lab coat, presumably a doctor, and got closer to him. Under the man's lab coat, in the pocket of his dress shirt Draco saw something strikingly familiar and he smirked curiously, peering closer. In the breast pocket of his shirt, among several others, was what appeared to be a pen. When Draco took a closer look, he noted that the shaft of the pen was wooden and oddly tapered. He smirked a little and plucked the "pen" from the doctor's pocket, pulling the cap off. There was no pen-point, only the tapered wooden tip of what Draco immediately recognized as one of Olivander's wands; similar to his own. He smiled and put the phony pen cap back on the end of the wand and put it back into the doctor's pocket.

He was in West Andalton General: the hospital that he had woken up in a few hours earlier.

Draco wandered further down the bright hallway, unseen by the slowly moving witches, wizards and muggles around him.

'_Some dream_…' Draco thought, '_I thought the point of these was escape from reality, not to get tossed back into it_…' He thought bitterly, and this was hardly a reality he wanted to be thrown back in to. Just a week ago he had been killed and seen horrible things, woken up from death to try and save Jade only to find that it was too late, and died again. Then he had woken up _again_ in Andalton General to find that when he had killed his father, he had killed Voldemort who had been feeding off of Lucius's body like a parasite. The entire wizarding world was in a frenzy, and he couldn't care less – he had still failed. After dying twice and coming back, Draco could safely say that living through what he'd lived through was bittersweet.

Draco continued wandering down the hall, poking at the nearly frozen things and people around him just waiting for the dream to end. He thought he caught something out of the corner of his eye, but he shook his head and ignored it. Even his subconscious was out to make him feel guilty… But then he stopped. He was sure of what he saw this time. He turned to his right and down at the end of the hall, leaning up against a doorframe casually and smiling at him was Jade.

Draco frowned. It was dream, just a dream. But he felt his legs carry him toward her anyway. He approached her cautiously, and when he was standing mere inches from her she stood up straight and looked up at him. He smiled dazedly but the guilty knot in his chest wouldn't go away. He looked down at her to see that she looked back to her old self; back to the way she had looked on the first night he had seen her; healthy, lovely, unhurt. She was wearing a beautiful white dress that hung off of her shoulders and hit at her knees. He smiled, even though the sight made his heart sink.

"I guess this means you're an angel, now." He pushed out. Her smile broadened and he watched her eyebrow go up and she rolled her brown eyes a little at him.

"Draco _Malfoy_…" She smirked and shook her head a little, reaching out and hanging onto his arm and put her other hand on the knob to the door she'd been leaning on, twisting it but not opening it, "Even if I _were_ dead, I don't think I'd exactly be an _angel_ if you catch my drift."

Draco stared at her dumbstruck. Had he heard her correctly? Though, he remembered, it was a dream, after all.

"…What?"

"Not a dream. Not really, anyway…" She smiled her devious smile and pushed the door open and pulled him into the hospital room. Draco found himself facing another bed, this one occupied with somebody familiar. It was Jade… again. It was Jade as he had last remembered her; broken, "Pardon my appearance – you know the story. I'm actually a doing a lot better than the last time you saw me." She smirked and chuckled a little.

"What are you talking about? Of course you're dead; I saw it happen," Draco's voice was quiet for a moment and he stepped further into the room, standing at the beside and looking down at Jade in the bed, "If this isn't a dream then what is it?"

"To be honest, I couldn't tell you if I tried. This is a little new for me as well… there are a lot of things that are new to me, but you'll see when you come to my room when you get up. I think you're the only thing that can wake me up. Nothing else has worked… the non-magic doctors said it's a coma, but there was a doctor in here with a wand earlier and he said something strange."

"…What did he say?"

"Something about me being 'frozen.' I didn't understand a whole lot of it, but it made me think: right before I 'died,' I felt a shock go through me and I know that it was from you. It felt like it froze me in place; it kept me from getting any closer to death, but I couldn't wake up either."

Draco froze – the shock. He had felt it too, and at the time it happened he hadn't thought anything of it. But he had known in his gut back in those woods that Jade hadn't been gone yet, and now it was beginning to make more sense.

"How did you get here?"

"I… can't be too sure, but… they were saying that they found me just outside of the town with this." Jade tucked her brown hair behind her ear and pulled a thin, bony object out from the bedside table drawer and held it out to Draco. Draco froze and took it from her gently. It was a wand. And not just a wand, but one almost identical to his: 10 inches, made from a hawthorne branch, shaped in the standard way that unicorn-core wands were. For a moment, Draco almost thought it was his own until he turned it over in his hands and failed to see the small "D.M." engraving near the base that Draco's wand had.

'Huh.' Draco thought, and smirked a little. Things were coming together a little more for him – the blue spark he had hit her with when he'd touched her before he died. Jade being able to connect with him subconsciously. Her being found with a wand, and her being found with _unicorn_ hair wand. Things were coming together a lot more, and Draco was pretty sure that he had pieced the puzzle together: Back in that clearing, through what he'd thought was only a painful shock, he had managed to give Jade magic. He understood why those unicorns had taken such a liking to her; she may not have been a witch, but she was going to be. The unicorns must have been perceptive to that, and latched onto her because of it – and had undoubtedly been the ones that had gotten her out of that forest, and left her with a unicorn-hair want. This was a big bomb to drop on somebody, but he'd save that conversation for when he woke her up. He handed the want back to her and smirked a little at her.

"I, uh, think you should hang onto that. Jade… If you're not dead, then what's with the angel-dress?" He questioned, looking her up and down in confusion. She blushed a little.

"Well, that… Actually, it's…" She paused and started again, "I told myself that if I made it out of that alive, that I wouldn't make any of you put up with me anymore. But this… is actually my prom dress. I got it with my mum the week before our town was raided. I was wondering if… maybe you wouldn't mind putting up with me for one more night? It's not for another few months but…I figure this was as decent a time to ask as any, and I won't stick you with me for months until that night."

Draco's smirk grew even wider and he stared down at the Jade laying in the bed briefly before looking back up at the one standing at his side.

"Are you asking me to be your muggle-school prom-date?" He grinned, enjoying the bright red blush on her healthy looking face.

"Yes."

"Absolutely. And I'd prefer if you did stick me with you until that night… if you don't mind, that is." Draco smirked a little and looked away from her, back to the form laying in the bed.

"I don't mind. Draco, I have to ask you a favor."

"Hm?" Jade turned to face him and smiled a little.

"Can you wake me up now? I've been stuck in here for a week watching myself."

"Sure. I think I can do that." Draco's smile spread further across his lips and he looked down at her. The side of her mouth curled up into a smile and she stood up a little higher and kissed his cheek gently.

"Thank you."

*

Draco opened his eyes and sat up in bed. He looked out the window; it was still light out, so he couldn't have been asleep that long. He touched his cheek. The more he thought about it, the more convinced he was that what he had just experienced was not a dream. He pushed the blankets off of himself and climbed out of the bed. Draco looked around the room and found a long, dark blue bathrobe with a hood hanging up in the corner by the door and threw it on, pulling up the hood. He would go without being hounded by the Daily Prophet for as long as he could manage. He opened his door a crack and poked his head out, thankful to find the hallway fairly empty and media free. Taking a bracing breath, he stepped out into the hallway and keeping his head down, made his way down the hallway.

He didn't really know where he was going, but he pushed his way through the door at the end of the hall and head up the last flight of stairs. When he opened the door at the top of the stairs, he felt immediate déjà-vu: this was the same door he had just pushed open in his dream. He kept close to the wall and made his way down the long hallway. He picked his head up after a while and looked ahead of him. Through the nurses, doctors and staff Draco saw the exact spot that Jade had been leaning against in his dream; right against the hospital room that he had seen her lying in. He smiled a little and headed over to it and took a deep breath before resting his hand on the knob. Without any more hesitation, her twisted it and pushed it open.

It hadn't been a dream. There she was, laying in the bed at the other side of the room. He approached her quickly and without hesitation; he had no doubt about what she had told him in his vision being true now, but he was grateful to see that some wonderful witch or wizard doctor had managed to heal the broken leg and several of the worse bruises. He pulled open the bedside drawer. Just as he had thought, there was the wand. With a smirk, he pulled it out and set it on the bed near her legs and sat down at the edge of the bed carefully. Picking his hand up, he wrinkled his eyebrows, concentrating carefully. Soon, he felt the same comfortable warmth that he had felt in the clearly come up through his wrist and make its way into his fingers. He smiled, and slowly brought his hand down to rest on her chest above her heart.

Thankfully, this time there was no painful shock but rather the warmth from Draco's fingertips spread to the rest of his body; the feeling was pleasant, comforting. He smiled a little and felt her chest rise and fall under his hand, and glanced at her face. She was looking back up at him, her eyes squinting a little to block out the brightness of the room. He let his hand drop to the bed next to her and watched her mouth curl up into a slight smile, which she held for a few seconds before he heard her scratchy voice.

"Thanks."

"Not a problem." Draco's smile had stretched further than it had in the past, and he found himself beaming. It was a strange, unfamiliar sensation in his face, but he loved it. It was over; Voldemort was finally dead, the Dark Side had no leader and would crumble, and the entire wizarding world would know what had really been happening at Hogwarts. Possibly best of all, Draco had not failed; he had managed to save Jade after all, if not with some unexpected side effects. He had thought he would never see her again, thought he had gotten her killed without question. What had happened back in those woods had been a miracle in what he had considered a doomed life. While he may have been less cold than he was a year ago at this time, he still had no idea how to even begin to speak to her. He stared at her for a minute, his mouth fumbling around words that would come out, before finally blurting, "I love your prom dress."

Her tired smirk grew, stretching wide across her face.

"Thank you. 'Love your bathrobe," She chuckled a little and looked down at the end of the bed, seeing the wand near her legs, "I was wondering about that…" Draco cut her off gently, squeezing her hand happily being careful of the bandaged wrist.

"It's a long, long story. We have all the time in the world to talk about it."

They finally did.

-

**A/N: End. : ] I really hope it was enjoyable! This was my favorite story to write. Thanks for all the feedback so far! If you enjoyed the story, I would love to hear it! Take care everyone**


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